CLASS NOTES an absolute nightmare, but I hope I can recover soon and get a good class notes in the next edition. We did have a reunion, such as it was – three Brother Rats and one Sister Rat attended. Monty Lyon, Bruce Cameron, Ruth Ann Herring and me. Our two dinners on Monday and Tuesday evenings were both delightful and entertaining with Col. Keith Gibson ’77, head of theVMI Museum speaking to us on Monday and Buddy Bryan ’71, vice president of the VMI Foundation, on Tuesday. At Monday’s dinner, I read the list of our departed Brother and Sister Rats in the past year and followed it up with a recitation of a modified VMI “Doxology.” We had an unexpected but most welcome gift from Col. Gibson - he presented each of us with a museum blanket which has the Museum VMI logo imbedded in the middle. Buddy didn’t have any gifts for us but somehow or another he started all of us on a “do you remember” bull session after dinner that lasted for over two hours. Incidentally, all of the wives, daughters, and sons who were present participated in these discussions with great glee. I, particularly enjoyed the repartee between Buddy and my son, William B. Todd ’68. It seems that Buddy was an E Company Rat when my son was the cadet captain of F Company. I gathered that my son was not too popular with Buddy and the other Rats at that time since the conversation at the table was quite interesting, particularly when they discussed the “parties” my son held for the Rats. From a class of 1938 point of view, the most pleasurable event occurred after the alumni parade when we repaired to the Barracks courtyard for the traditional Old Yell for each of the honored classes. Unfortunately Monty had to return to northern VA that morning, and Bruce was not feeling well at parade time; so, I ended up as the sole representative of ’38. Jason Webb ’08, class president graciously offered to help me lead the Old Yell for the class, and as we made the cheer, the whole Corps joined in and gave us a prolonged ovation for making it to our 70th Reunion. The Class of 1938 salutes you! I must wrap this up now, but I do have one last saddening note for the class. I had
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been trying to contact Sue Taylor, Boot’s widow, for the past month and a half with no success. I mentioned this to Buddy, and he informed me that Sue had died. I subsequently found that she had passed away on Jan. 11, 2008. I have no details. Yours in the Spirit!!
’39
Frank Parker III ’64
Col. Edward B. “E.B.” Williams sent a wonderful seven page biography describing his life’s experiences since leaving VMI. He credits Professor Col. “Buzz” Marr for getting him a job with the Virginia Highway Department until he was drafted into the Army in 1941. He attended Officer’s Candidate School and was commissioned second lieutenant in the Coast Artillery. He served in HI, Saipan, Okinawa and finally Korea. After defending HI for several years he was assigned to the engineering group responsible for the logistical planning for the occupation of Saipan in the Marianas islands. He landed on Saipan and participated in the construction of B-29 runways. He then repeated the same tasks on Okinawa and was there when the “bomb” was dropped on Japan. He was transferred to Korea as part of the occupation forces where he was for a short time before being sent home in November 1945. While he left active duty in 1945, he remained in the reserves until his retirement in 1970. He started his second career with the Veterans Administration primarily in their engineering departments at various locations throughout the U.S. With a few breaks in service working for private construction oriented businesses, he retired from the V.A. in 1973. Since retirement he has kept himself busy with church, volunteer organizations and family in Dayton, OH. If you would like a copy of his entire bio just let me know. Also, do your family and Brother Rats a great service and write or dictate your own bio. Ira N. Saxe sent me an e-mail updating us on his recovery from surgery. He has graduated from the walker to a cane and is spending three days a week in the local
sports medicine center were he is working out for two hours. His goal is to get back on the golf course soon. I visited with Ilbert D. “Bert” Brayshaw and his wife, Mary, in February at their luxury RV pad on the beach at Magnolia Beach, TX. They are still enjoying driving around the country seeing family and friends during the summers and spending the winter months here near their son, who lives in Sea Drift, which is near by. William F. “Bill” Brand writes to say Tickie is off to Greece in June, and he is doing well. He’s looking forward to his 90th in January. My Brother Rat, Henry J. “Hank” Cronin Jr. ’64 represented the class of ‘39 at the spring meeting of class agents held at The Institute while I was conflicted by business. He reports the Institute is doing well, even though the economic downturn has taken its toll. The building program is coming along and the new New Barracks’ exterior is nearing completion The bad news is that Eladio “Ruby” Rubira passed away on March 22 at his hometown of Mobil, AL. His obituary can be found in the Taps section of this Review. Marcy and I are off to France with a group of my Brother Rats and their wives. We are going to visit Normandy and other World War II historical sites. We’ve never been there and look forward to a rewarding experience. I’ll provide some reflections in the next class notes.
’40
Robert Smith
It is very good news that Walt Edens and Dottie are moving to Albuquerque, NM, where they will have their son, Sandy, and his family living nearby. They have bought a home in the Sandia Mountain foothills, near the tramway portal, and hope to move about the end of May. Sandy is a water engineer with the State of NM, and so, he has no expectations of being transferred somewhere else. As to their other children, Jeanne lives in McLean, VA, and Susan lives in Apollo, PA, near Pittsburg. Walt and Sandy were looking forward to going, before the move, to a family reunion in
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