CLASS NOTES there for all your BRs, I am sure! Harlan is dealing with the day-to-day grind at work and filling his weekend time painting the exterior of his house. He kind of put it off a few years. “On the positive side, it’s been five years and no recurrence of the cancer I was treated for. Guess I had better not complain about the house.” Great, great news BR! John Colonna writes in from Norfolk, “Like all of us, I was deeply saddened by Frankie’s [Lumpkin] passing. I was able to attend the viewing but not the funeral. The tremendous turn out for his viewing the night before was a testament to just how many lives he touched. As Mac’s comments echo, everyone who ever met Frankie was his friend. It was nice to see so many from ’79 again. Teresa and I continue to love living in Norfolk. After 7+ years, I finally got around to having a dock built. We’ve had a great summer, boating and pulling the kids around on a tube. I’ve been told that having a house on the water without a dock is like having a great computer but with no Internet connection. I’m inclined to agree.” Kirk Latsha is ALIVE! He writes, “Heading back to the classroom this week to start my eighth year of teaching and coaching at Southern High School in Louisville, KY (working on my second retirement).” I played golf last week in Pennsylvania with brother, Kimber, VMI ’77 and member of the VMI Board of Visitors. Can’t say who won the golf match!” Great to hear from you, Kirk, and super news about Kimber! Word from Henry Rogers: “Who could resist a plea like that for notes?” Henry has one more year left paying for college, and then
he and Kathy will be financially independent. “After four kids and eight years, it will be nice to actually use my money for things other than college. After May, we’ll be closing Rogers National Bank for good,” he says. In June, Henry got his black belt in Tae Kwon Do, finally fulfilling a childhood dream. The test lasted over four hours and Henry thought it was going to be the end of him, but he survived. “You know it’s bad when your breathing resembles Darth Vader.” Henry is excited to be able to do more teaching now. In October he’ll be leading a group back to Budapest, Hungary, for mission work, so he is busy getting ready for that. John Kailey’s son, who was a 1/4-inch shorter, is now 1 and one half inches taller than John and weighs 210 pounds at age 14. Needless to say, he is a natural for football. He played baseball last year, also, for the first time in a number of years and did well. The little one plays baseball, too. John says, “I daresay that I probably have the youngest son in the class – 7.” Hmmmm … Jay Thompson “may” have you beat, John! Any others gonna challenge? John is still on active duty. Allegedly, he will have an OCONUS (outside the Continental United States) tour, beginning mid September. He has had several false starts, so we will see what happens. That being the case, he says it sure would be nice to Skype some BRs! Frankie Lumpkin’s Memorial Golf Tournament in June, the “UF Open”, was a well attended blast! Great fun with the family and friends and a fine turn out from VMI and the class of ’79. Several BRs, including Tom Herbert, Massie Meredith, Mac Curtis,
Class of 1979: At the National Museum of the Marine Corps were, from left, kneeling, Randy Hawkins and Doug Doerr. Standing: Mike Staso, Meade Spotts, Jeff Goldhardt, Brian Tollie and John Poffenbarger. Doug serves as docent and provided the fun, fact-filled, three-hour, personal tour. A grand time was had by all.
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Mike Ogden, Bill Albro, Dave Jeter, Chuck Biviano, Doug Mauck, Sam Pace, Chip Humphrey and Mark Byrd – I KNOW I have forgotten a few (sorry, guys – getting old and I did not take notes!) were in attendance! I know Patty and family appreciated the support. Thought is for ’79 to make next year’s tournament an informal reunion. Get a block of rooms, play golf if you want and all get together for that night for dinner and fun. John Arthur, Jim Harrington, Pete Underwood and Asa Page recently ran into each other at a Western Branch VMI Alumni Association outdoor BBQ held in Portsmouth, VA. The event is held each year to welcome new cadets matriculating to VMI from the Hampton Roads area. Little did they realize it, but Jim and Asa live just a couple of miles from each other in Virginia Beach. Asa’s youngest was about to start the Ratline and was getting plenty of good advice from the BRs. Speaking of Asa, he had his 30-plus year retirement ceremony from the Navy in June. A wonderful and well done affair attended by myself, Pete Underwood, John Arthur and Mike Thomas. That’s it for this go ‘round. All well here with Renee on the Virginia Eastern Shore. She keeps busy with the Northampton County Chamber of Commerce, and I am breaking in a few new admirals at work. I would like to put a plug in for Facebook. We have over 90 BRs signed up and logged in to the VMI Class of 1979 group. We even have a few BRs from Iran on Facebook. Just another suggested way to keep in touch and for your “oh so wonderful” class agent to get word to you. Stay well, and keep in touch.
Class of 1979: John Arthur, Jim Harrington, Asa Page and Pete Underwood recently ran into each other at a western branch VMI Alumni Association outdoor BBQ held in Portsmouth, Virginia. The event is held each year to welcome new cadets matriculating to VMI from the Hampton Roads area.
VMI ALUMNI REVIEW