This website is provided for Classmates and their families to host news, views , and photographs of interest to the Class. To offer comments or suggestions contact the webmaster via email at willyaye@gmail.com
6/15/19
6/14/19
Death of a Classmate - George “G.B.” Parks - 23rd Co.
George "G.B." Parks died May 14, 2019, at age 86, just shy of his 87th birthday, at Kaiser Permanente in Vacaville, with his family surrounding him.
G.B. was born in Santa Monica, California, the oldest son of George and Lelia Joy Parks.
After graduating from Polytechnic High in San Francisco in 1950, he attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he was first in his graduating class in 1954. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force.
G.B. served honorably for 20 years, logging 7,768 hours flying T-34s, B-29s, C-130s and C-141s. A Master's Degree was earned at Stanford University in 1958.
For two years, home was near Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, where G.B. was a Senior Project Engineer for Satellite Nav/Comm Systems.
In 1963, after training as an Assistant Air Attache, the family, now with four children, moved to Ankara, Turkey, where their fifth child was born. They returned to U.S.A. in 1965 to Travis AFB. G.B. had one year flying in the Korean War. Then, at Travis again, he was a Squadron Instructor Pilot, and did Aerial Delivery Training through 1968. Then he was Jet transport Supervisory Flight Examiner, Operations Flight Examiner and Chief at Travis AFB Command Post to 1974, when he retired.
California Maritime Academy in Vallejo kept him busy the next 16 years teaching engineering maths. He then earned his Ph.D. at U.C. Davis in engineering in 1983. G.B. served as president of the Faculty Association, and retired as full Professor in 1992 from Maritime.
G.B. and his wife, Marna, worked on the family genealogy for many years, finding his descendants, and one was on the Mayflower of 1492.
G.B. and Marna raised their five children on a 52-acre ranch near Vacaville, California: Gary, Lorena, Jon, Howard and Semra, all learned, with the help of 4-H, about raising many kinds of animals and numerous other projects.
Grandpa G.B. will be missed by his wife, Marna; his four surviving children; 18 grandchildren; and 13 great-great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his son, Jon, Feb. 9, 2019.
A memorial service for both G.B. and Jon will start at 10 a.m. Tuesday, June, 11, 2019, at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery, 5810 Midway Road, Dixon, California.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Huntington's Disease Society of America, www.hdsa.org.
https://www.dailyrepublic.com/all-dr-news/obituaries/george-burton-parks/
6/4/19
A DAY OF DEDICATION - Our Poet's D Day Poem
A DAY OF DEDICATION
For placement of USNA plaque at the
National D-Day Memorial, Bedford, Va.
* On 5 June 2019, the 75th anniversary of D-Day will be marked by the presentation of a large bronze plaque to commemorate the Naval Academy graduates who participated in the greatest amphibious assault ever launched. The gift of a committee organized by Roger Henderson ’69, it fills a previously vacant space beside the West Point and Virginia Military Institute memorials.
6/3/19
5/26/19
FOR THE FALLEN - Dick Raymond's Poem for Memorial Day
FOR THE FALLEN
A Solemn Threnody
The muffled drums begin it,
Soft horns take up the song,
No words for choral voices,
They carry strings along—
And one by one the visions
Swim slowly into view,
Green fields of marble markers,
For brave and fallen few.
Not few! The panorama
Of thousands, ranked in rows,
Our nation's final tribute
To those who met our foes,
Young soldiers and young sailors,
Young airmen, all lie here
In foreign fields abiding,
Well-tended, year by year.
A general, a private,
In comradeship are one,
They shared a common duty,
Now share a stark white stone.
Remember, O remember
As generations pass,
However many heroes
Shall lie beneath new grass.
9-28-19
5/22/19
5/20/19
Death of a Class Wife - Betty Hawkins McKenzie
Betty Hawkins McKenzie, 88,
of Oak Harbor, Wash., passed away peacefully on May 3, 2019 with family by her
side. Betty was born on Feb. 17, 1931 in Frederick, Md., the only child of
William and Hattie (Trittipoe) Hawkins. She graduated from Bethesda Chevy Chase
High School in 1949, and from Marjorie Webster Junior College in 1951. As
stated in her college yearbook, Betty's life ambition was to be a wife and
mother, and it was that at which she excelled. Betty became acquainted with Jim
McKenzie through family connections in her childhood, but it wasn't until Nov.
11, 1950, that she and Jim had their first date at a Naval Academy football
game. (Neither Betty nor Jim remember the score of the game). That first date
turned Betty into a lifelong Navy football fan, and ultimately, into the
consummate Navy Wife. Jim and Betty were married on June 5, 1954, the day after
Jim's graduation from the Naval Academy. After declining seven previous
marriage proposals, eight became Betty's lucky number. Jim's Navy career took
Betty all over the country including time in Jacksonville, Pensacola, Alameda,
Oceana, Virginia Beach and San Diego. She always made a beautiful home wherever
she landed and was a gracious and welcoming hostess to all. Ultimately, it was
Whidbey Island that became Betty and Jim's true and lasting "home."
At her idyllic waterfront house on Whidbey, Betty loved working in her yard,
planting flowers, feeding the birds, tending to her flock of chickens, and
enjoying the sunset at "wine time." Frequent trips to Seattle for
theater, ballet and opera (with some shopping on the side, of course) were a
source of excitement and break from island life. Betty was a devoted Mariners
fan, enjoying trips to Arizona for Spring Training, and Safeco Field to see
them play. Betty is survived by James McKenzie, her husband of 64 years, and
her two daughters, Susan (Robert) Ferguson of Garfield, Wash., and Sally
(Charles Stempler) McKenzie, of Seattle, Wash. It was Betty's wish that there
be no memorial service. An informal friend and family gathering to remember
Betty will be held at Wallin Funeral Home on Wednesday, May 15, from 3-5 p.m.
(wine time). Two of Betty's great passions were children and animals. The
McKenzie family asks that memorials in her name be made to Whidbey Animal
Improvement Foundation online at https://waifanimals.org/donate/ or by mail to
WAIF, P.O. Box 1108, Coupeville, WA 98239; or to the Special Olympics
Washington online at http://specialolympicswashington.org/, by phone at 1-800-380-3071,
or by mail to Special Olympics Washington 1809 7th Ave, Suite 1509, Seattle, WA
98101-4400. Arrangements entrusted to Wallin Funeral Home, Oak Harbor, WA.
Please visit Betty's page in the Book of Memories online at www.wallinfuneralhome.com
to leave condolences and share memories.
Obituarydata.com
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