CLASS NOTES Agency and was in San Antonio, I would stop by and see him in his office whenever I had Air and Air Force Exchange Service business in the area. He was a life-long friend. Bob had a ‘never give up attitude’ and a ‘hyped up spirit.’ I watched him run many a track race at VMI, and he was usually on the winner’s stand. He was the definition of student-athlete. He was impulsive and always up for anything. When we cooked up a plan to go to Annapolis and get the Navy’s goat prior to our football game, Bob volunteered his car to transport the goat back to VMI in the backseat. We made it to the farm that housed the goat but we never got it. (Bad plan, poorly executed). At my wedding, when he saw the reception party house (a location in the woods we rented on the cheap), he thought it could be spruced up and proceeded to mop the entire place the night before the wedding. He wanted to take a rapids trip in Canada in our canoes standing up ‘Roman style’ until we reminded him we were alone and five days from civilization with only the canoes to get us out (that’s called operational risk management before it had a name). He was outspoken and would speak his mind; he didn’t care who was listening. He rose in the General Service ranks in the Air Force civil engineer community. In the Pentagon, he was looked to as a civilian to deliver bad news when others were afraid of the consequences. He was instrumental in the success of privatized housing that replaced outdated on-base housing with new housing for airmen. He was promoted to the Senior Executive Service and headed the Air Force Real Property Agency whose mission is to acquire and dispose of Air Force Controlled real property worldwide. It was the perfect job for Bob; it required wheeling and dealing and coming up with unconventional solutions to tough problems. One thing you can be certain, with Bob at the helm, the taxpayer always came out on top of those deals. The last time I saw Bob was a year ago. We hugged in the parking lot of his office in San Antonio and went our separate ways. Brother Rats, forever. Out of the blue, Jim Roper called. He happened to be driving by Fort Riley and was thinking about Bob. He was reminded of his ’73 summer camp at Fort Riley, when Bob and others scaled the nearby mountain and painted the VMI spider in the place of the Fort Riley patch before a summer camp parade. The presiding General was a VMI grad and liked the spirit of the crazy college students. We agreed we would talk at least once every 40 years. I told him we missed him at the last reunion and he said he’d come to the next one. Hall Brodie writes: “Bob Moore was our friend, our roommate, our co-conspirator and our cheerleader. He was also ‘Jersey’ through and through, never leaving anyone in doubt about how he felt about something, but presented in a way that always left room for humorous disagreement! We will always remember the raucous laugh and
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those pep talks he would give us during one of many VMI induced depressions – his enthusiasm for life was extraordinary and infectious – he demanded that you join in! His energy and conspiratorial nature led us into many adventures/ misadventures most notable being the Southern Seminary panty raid (successful) and the kidnapping of the Naval Academy’s goat (unsuccessful). The Southern Sem raid ended with lots of trophies despite several encounters with Buena Vista’s version of Barney Fife and his .357 revolver. As for the goat, luckily for us in retrospect, Col. Buck figured out what was going on and warned the Naval Academy staff who thwarted the kidnap attempt! We look back at these Bob Moore inspired events and think how stupidly crazy they were – then we smile and hear that laugh! Holding to Bob’s wishes, we plan to gather and down some beer, tell some stories, laugh, cry, cuss and discuss the great times we had with our friend Bob.” Bob Trost and Bob Moore … gone but not forgotten! Reminder to all: Plan to attend our 40th Reunion on April 25-26, 2014. To those BRs who attended our 35th: Don’t come alone. Bring a wingman to the 40th. Reunion information will be forthcoming. In general, it will be a casual weekend. Tentative plans: Cocktails for early arrivals on Thursday evening, place TBD. Friday: registration, golf for the men, jewelry luncheon for the ladies and a BBQ for the evening. Saturday: memorial service, class photo, parade and free time with casual dinner ideally at Moody Hall, if we are senior enough to reserve it. Sunday will be a farewell brunch, place TBD. It’s going to be a good one – be there! Class agent plea! Don’t be caught without your class coin. If you need one, send $10 (cost of coin and postage). Please forward any news regarding births, deaths, illnesses, marriages and other significant events concerning your family and/or careers. Brother Rats are interested and do care. I know e-mail addresses have a half-life of about six months. Keep us current. Send your updated e-mail address to me, snookieparker1974@earthlink.net, Charley Banning cbanning@cox.net or Kevin Nettrour (our webmaster) nettrour@ accessus.net. Check out the website. Send me a note. Yada, Yada, Yada and Yaba Daba Dooooo! Warm Regards, Snookie
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Art Nunn III
Well, another quarter has flown by. This has certainly been the coolest and wettest summer I can ever remember here in Virginia. It has however, been beautiful here. I hope everyone
has had a great summer, whether you are dealing with the mildness of the East Coast or the heat of other places. Thank you all for your support by answering my e-mail plea for information to place in these notes. It certainly does make this task much easier when I do not have to rely on my imagination – or worse yet, my memory – to come up with a bit of prose each quarter. Let me update you on what we have heard since last time. Bill Turpin hosted a mini-reunion of sorts in Houston in late May. Charlie Collins, Guy Conte, Rick Davison and Dan Heiken joined Bill for an afternoon and evening of good times where they talked about the rest of us behind our backs (but only in the kindest of terms, I am sure). They had a great time, and it is great that they shared it with us. Dean Armstrong continues to call often and he sends post cards from his various stops around the globe. As a military history buff, I think Dean just hangs onto his airline pilot job because of the travel opportunities that it presents. Speaking of military history, Lenny Riedel is a professional at this stuff, and he has built a nice business of orchestrating and conducting tours of various battle locations. Chuck Wohlrab reports that his job was extended in Abu Dhabi, and he will be there for another year. Chuck and his family are now making plans to visit the states at Christmas time to see their older kids, Philip and Kirkland. Greg Stultz is enjoying the summer in the Cleveland area, but he is dreading the upcoming winter. He is looking forward to visiting the Institute at some time during the fall. Rich Mines has had some interesting experiences recently. Rich was inducted into the inaugural class of Fellows of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute on May 19, 2013, at the World Environmental and Water Resources Congress in Cincinnati, Ohio. That is a tremendous honor. He and his family (Beth, Andrew and Daniel) spent six days in the Tetons and Yellowstone National Park, hiking, looking for wildlife and whitewater rafting. Of course, Rich always finds time to either run in or train for a marathon or two. That is just hard to comprehend. I don’t even like to drive 26-plus miles! Bo and Nancy Temple are still in Springfield, VA, while Bo continues his post-retirement employment search. Bo attended a BR impromptu dinner with Guy Conte, Ronnie Norman and others in March. Everyone looked great. Bo enjoyed the annual VMI Scholarship Luncheon in April and speaking at a Potomac River Chapter VMI dinner on June 1. In really great news, Bo reports that after successful treatment at National Institutes for Health, his tumors are gone. He is scheduled to start a new clinical trial later in August at Washington Hospital Center in hopes
VMI ALUMNI REVIEW