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| Robert '94 and Brev Moore '63 |
CLASS OF
1963
Pres: CAPT W. Spencer Johnson IV, USN (Ret.)
Sec'y: Michael H. Shelley
25 Sweetwater Lane, Pisgah Forest, NC
28768
h: 828-862-4245 e: nstar@citcom.net
Web site: http://www.usna63.org.
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| Robert '94 and Brev Moore '63 |
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| Ninth Company at the Pentagon |
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| Apres ski at South Lake Tahoe |
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| Ed Howard |
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| Pete Carrothers' ride |
These aren't exactly USNA plates, but I thought you might want to post them anyway. I found that working as a Blue and Gold Officer, the high schoolers were much more interested in talking to you about the Naval Academy if you showed up at their school in a flashy Navy Blue Corvette convertible with "FLY NAVY" license plates. Retirement is great, though I probably ruined it by getting elected to the City Council for the next two years, and that will definitely cut down on our traveling. Can't believe it, but we are going back to the 40th reunion of our Vigilante squadron this spring. It just doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we were catapulting off the ENTERPRISE and thinking we were invincible.Pete also sent this nice snapshot of Nancy and himself "at a recent function" of some sort.
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| Nancy and Pete Carrothers |
I may have some kind of first that could scare us all. My oldest son married a widow with two children. One of those children has recently had a son. Does this make me a step-great-grandfather? Doris says she refuses to say she is married to a great-grandfather.
During Sandy and Ken Metviner's visit to Portland, OR, Ken organized a 1963 24th Company dinner on 17 May. Attending from the Seattle area were Marion and Pete Soverel, Jim Hall, and Jerry Carpenter (who had a medical discharge at the end of Plebe year - what bad timing!). From the Portland area were Judy and Ray Kutch and Pat and Don Grant. Besides catching up with the classmates who graduated, it was great to learn what happened to Jerry after he left USNA. His biography is detailed in the non-graduate section of the Class of 63 web site. Here is a photo of the group showing, left to right, Pete Soverel, Jerry Carpenter, Ken Metviner, Ray Kutch, Don Grant, Jim Hall.
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| 24th Company dinner in Portland |
Anne and I journeyed by car to Millbrook, NY, and checked in at the (name withheld) Motel, the place I had said any classmates could meet up with me. Now, you may hear some comments about this motel, particularly from Betty and Jerry Mulholland. It should be noted that the quality of this motel was somewhat lacking in certain areas. It did have some good points, however, but they seem to have slipped my mind right now. The phone system did have the looks and attributes of a system that you could find in a Hilton hotel. In fact, all the phones were from the Parsippany Hilton in New Jersey.Dave Byrnes sent a lengthy reflection about Clay and the connections made between friends. Most of it appears below.When we checked in we discovered Mike Obsitnik already there. Travis Beard and the Mulhollands checked in shortly. The six of us headed into Poughkeepsie for dinner. A number of toasts to Clay's memory were made and a lot of stories passed back and forth about him. Needless to say we had a good time. The next morning, when I looked out my motel bedroom I discovered Dave Byrnes (18th Co) waving hello to me.
The Service was held at St Peter's Episcopal Church in Millbrook. When we got to the Church we meet Bruce Webb and Peggy and Jon Scott already inside. The service was very nice, with several local people talking about their memories of Clay. Bill Anderson talked about the Navy days and introduced us all to the audience. He made the point that the locals, there in the church, knew Clay for maybe 10 years, while we 63'ers knew him for over 40 years. We had a different frame of reference than most of them.
The 17th Company was well represented, with six of us attending and three wives. Each of us was very happy to have made the trip.
I traveled up I-95 to Clay Morse's Memorial Service. I'd promised to check-in with a friend when I reached the New Jersey/New York state line. I called her from the last stop on the New Jersey Turnpike before entering New York. During the telephone conversation she asked me how I was connected to Clay. I said that is a long story I'll tell you some other time. When I hung up and continued to drive into the night I thought about "connecting." I was thinking about associations with Clay. I thought about things, places, and people. I thought about the links that brought them all together.Some of the tangible things we had in common included: USNA Diploma, Gold Dolphins, a daughter and son (same ages), nice homes, a business partnership and some of the more subtle ties which included a Lutheran heritage, a compelling achievement focus and pride that is best described by colors of red, white, blue and gold.
Since I'd traversed I-95 so many times to meet with Clay, I considered connecting the dots of places we'd been. It seemed like thousands of random dots, so I narrowed the hookups to states...Oregon, Missouri, Illinois, Maryland, Connecticut, Virginia, Connecticut, Hawaii......Michigan, then those lines also blurred into a scribble all over the states west of the Mississippi with occasional jumps to Korea, the Caribbean and eastern Canadian provinces.
I had to ask directions several times before I found the small-town motel where Jack McDonald had arranged for classmates to meet. One place I stopped to ask for directions was a dilapidated antique barn. The motel wasn't much better. It was a hole in the wall establishment, but it was the only motel around. I knew though that I'd found the right place as several of the cars in the parking lot had vanity plates from various states that read like USNA63 and 6NAVY3.
In the church our companymate group teamed up with several more classmates, including Bill Anderson and Bruce Webb. During the service I thought more about connecting, connecting to people, classmates, family, and significant others. I liked all the tributes said about Clay. Several of Clay's Millbrook "connections" talked about Clay's recent years and his great relationship with his wife, Midge. When Bill Anderson took the lectern, we experienced more of the real C. K. Morse that most of us knew. Bill was able to relate all of Clay's achievements, even the "colorful" ones in an outstanding manner. Ben Morse, Clay's son, gave a long homily that related experiences with his dad. I remembered many incidents from Clay's perspective, as he and I often talked about our kids and problems we were having with them. Clay would have really liked to hear Ben's words.
In the Navy responsibility, places, things and people are always changing. It can build a persona that guards against making really close, passionate relationships but it doesn't mean that the quality isn't in our hearts. As I took the New Jersey Turnpike south I thought that connecting goes beyond things, places, people to actions of trusting, receiving, and giving. Clay, I appreciated all of your actions.
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| After the Clay Morse memorial service |
In late April, Vivian and I enjoyed a nice luncheon at the "Boat Shed" restaurant overlooking Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, the USS TURNER JOY (DD937) and some yachts milling around in Sinclair Inlet here in Bremerton. We were joined by Ann and Tom O'Brien and their friends Rosemary and Jim Adkins '58. Tom and Ann were visiting their son, grandson, and family in Mill Creek north of Seattle and found a few hours to spend on our side of the Sound for lunch. We had a fine time recounting sea stories, comparing gardening activities, discussing cardiac surgeries, and watching the tide waters rushing in to fill up the Bay. Tom even grabbed the tab before I could do anything about it -- I think he had cornered the waitress beforehand. It was a most enjoyable visit.
When the December 26 tsunami hit the shores of Southeast Asia, Tidewater resident Dick Guffey was in Colorado celebrating Christmas with his family. Guffey served for 10 years in the U.S. Navy and has traveled "in and out of Thailand" since the Vietnam War era. His son, Greg, speaks Thai and has spent the past few years living in a village in Northern Thailand teaching English and computer skills. "I have always loved Thailand and the people there, and my son picked that up somehow in his travels. When we saw what was happening, we both just felt like we wanted to go back and help somehow.You can read the complete article at http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2005/04/01/community/community01.txtGuffey is co-founder and president of Global Involvement through Education, a non-profit organization that assists developing nations through educational projects. When he saw what was happening on Dec. 26, the humanitarian aspect of his work "just led us into wanting to help," he said. Greg flew to Thailand on Jan. 16, followed by Guffey four days later. They had planned for Greg to get a sense of what had happened and what kind of relief was needed, then for Guffey to purchase required items in Bangkok before joining his son on the southern Thai coast.
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| Von Sydow - Mincin wedding |
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| Marsden - Uzzell wedding |
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| Shelley - Walker wedding |
The next day, June and Chuck Stone welcomed several classmates to a dinner at their lovely mountaintop home. The guests of honor were Steve Duncan and Lou and Mike Shelley, all in town to celebrate Aaron's wedding. Other attendees were Dottie and Bill Hughes, Gail and Vern Von Sydow, and Phillip Marsden and his mother, Phyllis, who took this picture of the group.
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| Mid-April dinner guests |
This spring we did a bare-boat charter of a 42-ft Grand Banks trawler in Sarasota, and over a two week period went to Key West and back. One couple went with us part of the way, and as they had to go back to work, another couple finished up the trip with us. It was something Carol and I have wanted to do for years, and in large part because of the folks accompanying us, it was more fun than I expected." The picture is of me, the couple who went with us (He was my S-3A tacco in Pax River in '74), and Carol just before getting underway from Marco Island.
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| Bareboat charter in Florida |
