1. UPDATED article:Honoring CNC's First Decade Veterans: Navy and Coast Guard.
2. UPDATEDList: CNC's First Decade Veterans: Navy and Coast Guard.
3. Honoring CNC's First Decade Veterans: Army, Part 2 (updated).
4.List: CNC's First Decade Veterans: Army (updated again).
5. REVISED article from 2014: When Computers First Came to CNC.
6. NEW humor: Phyllis Diller on Housework, Children, and "Fang".
BI-WEEKLY QUOTE
"Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."
Winston S. Churchill
British Prime Minister
(1874 - 1965)
MODERN MUSE
1st DECADE VETERANS
Honoring CNC's First Decade Veterans: Navy and Coast Guard
Part 1
Updated November 27, 2020
by A. Jane Chambers
Parts 1 & 2of this series honored CNC's 61 First Decaders who served in our nation's Army and also the two killed in action (KIA): Ric Bahr (Army) and Pat Giguere (Marines). This article honors the 23 First Decaders who served in the Navy and 2 who served in the Coast Guard, plus our first CNC president--H. Westcott (Scotty) Cunningham (Navy). The last article in the series will honor our Air Force and Marine Corps veterans and CNC's second President--James C. (Jim) Windsor (Marines).
Scotty Cunningham (family photo), a Navy lieutenant in WW2., served two years in the Pacific commanding a PT (Patrol and Torpedo) boat, when John F. Kennedy, whom he knew, was doing the same in his PT 109. It was very hazardous duty; many men and boats were lost. Cunningham served again during the Korean War, but having contracted malaria in the southwest Pacific, he couldn't fight in Korea; instead he served as a military briefer at the Pentagon. From 1953 through 1970, he was also an active member of the Naval Reserve, retiring at the rank of Captain. Our website's tab ARCHIVES, sub tab FIRST DECADE HISTORY, has more information about Scotty's military experience.
Internet drawing of ELCO style PT boat.
Anthony Lee (Tony) Williamson (above left) enlisted in the Navy in November 1966 and was discharged honorably in July 1970 as an Aviation Machinist Mate 2nd Class (PO2: Petty Officer). He then attended CNC 1970 -73, completing his BS in business administration in 1973. The photo above was taken January, 1967 at the USN Recruit Training Command (RTC), Great Lakes, IL--familiar to Navy veterans.
After 3 semesters at CNC, Robert A. Slusser (above right), served in the Navy ten years (1965-75) and, like Tony, was also in the field of aviation maintenance, leaving as an Aviation Maintenance Administration man First Class (AZ1). He served in Japan and the Philippines. His photo above was taken in a aircraft hanger at the US Naval Air Station at Sangley Point, Philippines in 1969.
After earning his AA degree at CNC in 1968 and BS in psychology at ODU in 1969, John William Moore (left above) served three years on active duty in the Navy (1969-72), then four years in the Naval Reserve while also earning his MA in psychology. He left the Navy as Musician 2nd Class (MU2). John's picture was taken aboard the USS Columbus in January of 1971. After earning a Ph.D. in psychology, he became a professor and then senior systems computer analyst at Belmont University.
After completing his AA at CNC in 1965 Raymond Alan (Ray) Pepe (right above as Ensign) joined the Naval Reserve, enabling him to serve his country while also earning his baccalaureate degree at William and Mary. He was on active duty for two years (1967-69) on the USS Dewey (DLG-14), serving six months of that time in Vietnam on search and rescue missions (Jan.- June 1968). He left the reserve in 1994 at the rank of Commander (CDR).
David A. Spriggs (photos above) enlisted in the Naval Reserve in May 1964, then enrolled at CNC as a freshmanthat fall. After receiving his letter of acceptance from the U.S. Naval Academy and completing his first semester at CNC, he entered the Naval Academy on June 30, 1965 and graduated June 4, 1969, commissioned as Ensign. He served on active duty until June 30, 1980, then accepted a commission as lieutenant in the Naval Reserve. He retired as Captain, USNR on June 30, 1998, having served a total of 34 years and 2 months. The left photo shows David as LTJG aboard the USS Leary (DD-879) at Valetta, Malta, in July 1970. The right photo shows him in his Navy Captain uniform in Norfolk in July, 2004.
Thomas E. (Tom) Witty, Jr. (deceased), earned his AA at CNC in 1965, his BS at William & Mary in 1967, and his DDS at MCV in 1971--after which he joined the Navy. He served two years active duty (1971- 1973) as a dental officer on the USS Vulcan (AR-5). The left photo shows Tom as a LTJG. The right, a promotional picture for the USS Vulcan, shows him examining a patient's teeth. He also served in the Naval Reserve for fifteen years, being discharged as a LCDR-R.
Dr.James D. (Jim) Lowell, MD (photos above) first attended CNC in 1965-66, while also serving in the US Coast Guard Reserve 1964-66 (Boot Camp photo left). After leaving the Coast Guard, he served in the US Army Reserve 1966-70. While also in the USAR, Jim enrolled in the Riverside School of Professional Nursing at Riverside Hospital, Newport News--the first male in the hospital's nursing program. In 1967-68, he and the other student nurses were bused to CNC for required academic classes. After earning his RN in 1970, and also completing Army Reserve service, Jim worked night shifts at Riverside Hospital while earning a BS in psychology at CNC, completed in 1972.
He then earned his MD in 1977 at MCV and completed a residency in family medicine at the Univ. of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. His medical career afterwards included being a fly-in doctor at a reservation in Manitoba, practicing rural family medicine, having a private practice (80% obstetrics), and working in occupational medicine. Currently Jim directs the Occupational Medicine Clinic at Good Shepherd Medical Center, Longview, TX. After half a century, Jim still fits into his winter dress Coast Guard uniform (2015 photo, right).
The above photo of the 1970 Veterans Club at CNC is from page 66 of the 1970 Trident. The following students, listed alphabetically, have not yet been located: ROBERT HUBERT, TOM HOGGE, JOHN MARCHI, BILL NEEDHAM, CLINTON SWIFT, GEORGE WILLIAMS. Contact us if you can help locate any of them, please! Thank you!
CNC's First Decade Veterans: Navy and Coast Guard List
NAVY
NORMAN BLANKENSHIP unknown
EDMOND LEE BOURQUE LTJG
TIMOTHY M. BROWN Vietnam CT2
TEOBALDO (TED) CUERVO unknown
ROBERT (BOB) DEANS (D) PC3
DANNY W. DOTSON unknown
JOHN LaROCHE GRAY YN2
DAVID (DAVE) STEPHEN HALL unknown
DIXIE HOGGE SHARP LT
WILLIAM G. (BILL) HUGHES CDR
DAVID L. KAHN unknown
ROBERT J. (BOB) LeCOUNT, Jr. CDR
JOHN WILLIAM MOORE (PC) MU2
MICHAEL E. (MIKE) PAYNE unknown
RAYMOND ALAN (RAY) PEPE (PC) Vietnam CDR
ROBERT A. SLUSSER (PC) Japan & AZ1 Philippines
DAVID A. SPRIGGS (PC) CAPT
ALAN R. WATSON (D) LTJG
RAYMOND (RAY) WEST Vietnam SCPO
DORSEY E. WHITE III unknown
ANTHONY (TONY) WILLIAMSON (PC) PO2
MARGARET WILKINSON CROWEVietnam CAPT
THOMAS E. (TOM) WITTY, Jr. (D & PC) LCDR
COAST GUARD
ALAN CUSTER E5
JAMES D. (JIM) LOWELL (PC)
Honoring CNC's First Decade Veterans: ARMY
Part 2
Updated November 2020
by A. Jane Chambers
Part 2 continues the ARMY tribute from Part 1, beginning with two vivid accounts by Charles M. (Corky) Brooks of harrowing events that occurred in the first six months of the year (Nov.1967- Nov. '68) he was stationed at the largest Army Airfield in Vietnam, located in Vung Tau. As a member of the Search and Rescue unit, he drove one of the fire trucks.
"Two events I remember vividly," he wrote. "The first happened when I was sitting in my fire truck close to the runway. A single engine aircraft (L-19) banked right just after it took off. The engine made a loud popping noise; then the propeller froze. We firemen knew the plane was going to crash. I started the fire truck and raced through town, following it. Luckily the pilot found an open field in which to land safely, but unfortunately, the plane hit a power line, flipped 360 degrees, and hit the ground hard, right side up. We quickly reached the plane, which, to our surprise, did not burst into flames. And amazingly, the pilot had suffered only a cut lip!"
The second event began at about 2:30 a.m. in April 1968 with a loud explosion that awakened everyone. Six Russian 122 mm rockets had been launched by Viet Cong soldiers nearby. "Fortunately," Brooks wrote, "only one of the six rockets hit one of our 20 to 25 planes parked on the airfield, all fully fueled and ready for takeoff in the morning. From our deep sleep we had to race quickly to put out the fire of that plane, a twin engine Caribou. The flames rose 60 feet into the air."
The photo above shows "what was left of the Caribou and the hole where the rocket landed and exploded.The enemy attacked the airfield again at about 5:00 a.m., but this time only with mortar, so it was a minor incident with only minimal damage to the airfield and some of our other planes. In both attacks, thankfully, none of our firefighters were injured."
Thomas W. (Tom) Redman (above L) served 35 years (1965 - Jan. 2005) active duty in Army Intelligence, mainly at TRADOC, Fort Monroe. He retired as Chief Warrant Office (CW4), then worked full time two years in Civil Service, followed by several more years part time. The photo shows Tom at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, FL in 2003. He worked there at the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Center, one of the largest military coalitions in U.S. History, formed after the 2001 Twin Towers attack in NYC to fight terrorism.
David Scoggins (above R) served in the Army from Sept. 1968 to Feb. 1972. His rank in the photo he sent was Corporal E4; he left service as Specialist 5. His overseas tour was in Bavaria, Germany, at Herzo Base, an Army Security agency field station. His photo was taken by his wife, Julia, on Jan. 1972 in their off base apartment in the town of Herzogenaurach.
John Normanserved in Vietnam July 1969 to July 1970, working in field radio repair in a shop at his base station in a famous highlands resort city of Dalat (or Da Lat) and making convoy trips to move communications equipment to field units. His most memorable time was Memorial Day 1970. He had just returned from R and R in Sydney, Australia, with only 60 days left in Vietnam, when the Viet Cong decided to overtake Dalat. The U. S. troops suddenly had to defend their home base. John remembers being "in a corner bunker with an M-60 machine gun" and "listening to the Indy 500 race while the mortars were coming in on our position." Fortunately the VC were quickly driven out by the Army of South Vietnam. Photos of John before leaving for Vietnam (top L) and (top R) while at the Dalat base (taller man, L) were provided by John.
Ronald Lowder, Sr. (above L) and Paul Darden (R) were both talented musicians who played together in bands such as "The Sheepherders" and "Just Us" before their military service, so quite naturally they both served as musicians while in the Army. Ron was stationed at Fort Eustis 1966 - 1969 as a clarinetist and saxophonist, performing in both the Stage Band, which played popular music, and the Concert Band. Paul was stationed at Fort Monroe 1968 - 1971 as a percussionist, playing in the U.S. Continental Army Band. Beginning in 1971, the year of the first baccalaureate degree class at CNC, the Fort Monroe band performed at many commencements at CNC. The picture below is of the Stage Band at Fort Eustis. Ron is the man second from the left in the first row, holding his alto sax.
William H. (Bill) Mann, Jr. was the first CNC graduate to receive a military commission, that of Second Lieutenant in the Army. A member of the first baccalaureate class, 1971, he had completed the ROTC program at William and Mary while also completing his degree work at CNC. Bill then served actively from Nov. 1971 to Sept. 1973 at Fort Carson, Colorado with the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized), with the General Staff, Directorate Civil Military Plans. Afterwards, he served from Oct. 1973 until July 1987 in the Army Reserve as a Captain with the 80th Division Maneuver Training Command, Military Police. The photo here is his official picture taken when he received the rank of Captain.
Norman Covert enrolled at CNC in the fall semester of its second year, 1962-'63, when the new college was located temporarily in the old Daniel Elementary School, where he had attended his 6th and 7th grades. Like many of our early students, he tried to work full time while also attending college: "I was working double shifts in the shipyard," he wrote, so "dropped out in second semester since I hadn't distinguished myself." While working as a sports reporter with The Daily Press Norman was drafted into the Army in July of 1967.
He served in the Federal Republic of Germany with the 237th Combat Engineers and 7th Engineer Brigade. He left active service on July 23, 1969 as a Specialist 4, Chaplains' Assistant. The photo here shows Norman at Maguire Air Force Base at 3:00 a.m. after returning home from Germany in July of 1969.
NOTE: Another updating of this article is possible if additional First Decade Army
Veterans submit photos and content.
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Published November 15, 2020
CNC's First Decade Veterans: Army
Updated again November 27th
by A. Jane Chambers
Updated again November 27, 2020, this list includes 60 CNC First Decaders thus far located who served in the U.S. Army and gives (where known) their overseas deployments and ranks they held when they left service.
(D) = Deceased, (KIA) = Killed in Action, (PC) Photo(s) & Content in article.
CLAUDE H. AREHART Vietnam CAPT
ROBERT B. (Bob) ARTMAN (D)Australia unknown
RICHARD D. BAHR (KIA) (PC) Vietnam 1st LT
JOHN WARD BANE (D)Vietnam CAPT
DANA MICHAEL (Mike) BEARD SPEC. 4
DAVID C. (Dave) BESSOM SPEC. 5
CHARLES M. (Corky) BROOKS (PC) Vietnam SPEC. 4
JOHN BROCK, JR. SPEC. 5
CHARLES CARRITHERS SPEC. 5
DELIO (Jerry) COLONNA Vietnam CAPT
SAMUEL H. (Sam) COMPTON, JR. unknown
NORMAN COVERT (PC) Germany SPEC. 4
WILLIAM (Bill) CRUTE 1st LT
PAUL Q. DARDEN (PC) SPEC. 5
ROBERT M. (Bob) DAVIS, JR. Vietnam SGT
GERALD DesLAURIERS Vietnam LT COL
ROSS DORNEMAN Vietnam 1st LT
O. JAY DUNN (PC) SPEC. 5
DELBERT O. EDINGTON unknown
MARK H. EGGER Vietnam SPEC. 4
RICHARD JOSEPH (Joe) ENGLISH Germany SPEC. 5
JAMES T. (Jim) EYRE (PC) Vietnam 1st LT
JOHN G. FLYNN (D)Vietnam CAPT
BERT GIMM Germany 1st LT
LESTER GOOD Vietnam unknown
RONALD GUYE unknown
ALEXANDER M. HANGER III unknown
JAMES R. (Jim) HARRIS, Jr. Vietnam unknown
LARRY HERMAN (D)Vietnam CAPT
THOMAS J. HIPPLE III SGT
JOHN W. HUGHES SGT
BRIAN HUTCHENS unknown
STEVE KIGER Vietnam unknown
C. EDWARD (Ed) KNIGHT III (D+PC) Vietnam COL
DONALD W. LAKE (D) 2nd LT
RONALD LOWDER, SR. (PC) SPEC. 5
WILLIAM H. (Bill) MANN, JR. (PC) CAPT
C. WAYNE MARDIS unknown
MARILYN McCABE-PRIMEAU CAPT
LLOYD MERRITT Vietnam unknown
JOHN NORMAN (PC) Vietnam SGT
ROY PARRISH Spec. 4
DON PETRINE Vietnam unknown
CURTISS PITTMAN SGT
RALPH RACIOPPI unknown
THOMAS W. REDMAN (PC) CW4
DEAN (CHIP) RHODY CAPT
ROMAN SCHENKKAN (PC) Vietnam SPEC. 5
DAVID SCOGGINS (PC) Germany SPEC. 5
KENNETH SINGLEY Vietnam LT. COL
PAUL SMELTZER LT. COL
KENNETH G. SMITH (PC) Vietnam SPEC. 5
CARLTON T. STANLEY (PC) Vietnam COL
CLAUDE STANLEY (PC) Vietnam LT. COL
LOUIS TAPIA Vietnam CAPT
ALLEN C. (KIT) THOMAS: unknown
HAROLD H. WALKER (D)Germany SPEC. 4
BOB WEATHERMAN Vietnam SPEC. 4
FAIRMOUNT (MONTE) WHITE, Jr.SPEC. 5
JOHN ZSOLDOS Vietnam unknown
FIRST DECADE HISTORY
When Computers First Came to CNC
by A. Jane Chambers,
with additional information from
E. Graham Pillow
Revised November 29, 2020
Graham Pillow (A.B. and M.T.S., W&M), originally hired to teach physics in CNC's second year (1962-63), brought our young college into the computer world in the mid-1960s, at its new location on Shoe Lane. As assistant professor of math and computers (1971 Trident photo, p. 21), he was given space on the first floor of Newport Hall for equipment mysterious to most of us faculty and staff members. There he set up CNC's first Computer Center. “We had no computing power on site,” Graham recalled, so “all programs were submitted to the William and Mary computers over dedicated data lines.”
The Computer Center had the only air conditioning in Newport Hall for several years, required because the equipment could not tolerate any humidity, On extremely hot days, especially during Summer Sessions, some of us teaching in Newport Hall would manufacture lame excuses for stopping by the Center so that we could cool off for awhile.
A crucial early task Graham undertook for the College was that of helping the Office of Admissions and Registration handle registration and class rolls in a faster, more modern way. Everything did not always go smoothly at first, however. As his wife, Registrar Jane Pillow, recalled (1970 Trident photo, p. 15) : “one of the first printouts Graham brought to the office, a list of all CNC students, created great excitement—until it was discovered that the listing was in social security, rather than alphabetical, order" (Memories of Christopher Newport College, p. 147).
Computer cards filled with holes became a familiar sight on our campus. The cards used at CNC (photo right) were sent to me courtesy of Dr. Sam Bauer, Professor Emeritus of Psychology. The CNC seal on them was adopted in 1970. When I asked Graham about the different colors of these, he wrote, “The plain cards were for student use in computer classes. Brown cards were significant because they represented student data for Registrar records. I think the red cards were used for programs submitted by myself or the ladies who worked for me."
Regarding the bulky machine in the photo shown left below, Graham wrote, “That is a keypunch machine … used to punch characters in a card which is then read into a computer by a card reader. If you had one of these machines now it would be an antique. When I was later Director of Medical Computing at the University of Virginia, we had three shifts of keypunch operators (55 people) who punched every patient charge sent down by nurses, techs, and doctors into a card using these machines. The cards were then sorted by a card sorter by patient name and then read into the computer in groups of over a thousand cards. Things sure have changed.”
Graham quickly became Chair of Computer Studies at CNC. The photo top left (1969Trident, p. 25) shows him working at the Computer Center's keypunch machine, described above. The other photo (1971 Trident, p. 21), is of Hugh C. Hilliard, Jr. (B.S., VPI; M.S., Harvard), who joined the faculty in 1970 as instructor of math and computers. Hugh assisted Graham with designing CNC’s first interdependent B.S. degree, Management Information Science (MIS), which required courses in business, psychology, and computer science. The 1971 CNC Catalog listed 6 courses under Computer Management, involving programming using RPG, COBOL, FORTRAN, and PL/1.
The first MIS degrees were awarded in 1972 to four students:Lorraine Farquhar Armstrong, Davis Wray Martin, Wilma Jean Riden (now Moore), and Thaddeus Joseph Schatzel. Wilma is the only one of these four thus far located. Can you help us locate any of the others? The BS: MIS degree was eventually replaced by the Bachelor of Science in Information Science degree (BSIS).
Jane Carney Pillow lost her battle with cancer on August 9, 2009. Graham Pillow lost his battle with Covid-19 on November 13, 2020. We have not been able to locate Hugh Hilliard.
NOTE: Some of this material appeared originally in "The People Within: Smith Hall in 1967," in Memories of Christopher Newport College, the First Decade, 1961-1971, by A.J. Chambers, R.C. Hubbard, & L.B. Wood, Jr.
Phyllis Diller was born in 1917 in Lima, Ohio as Phyllis Ada Driver and died in her Brentwood, Los Angeles, California home of natural causes at age 95 in 2012. According to her family, she died in her sleep with “a smile on her face.” An only child, she had earned a college degree, studied piano seriously at a conservatory for three years, married and given birth to six children (one died shortly after birth) by her first husband, Sherwood A. Diller, made movies, written books, and—most importantly— cracked the ceiling for women as stand-up comediennes. Here are some of her best one-liners on the topics of herself, housework, children, and her husband, "Fang."
On Herself
I was the world's ugliest baby. When I was born, the doctor slapped everybody.
My vanity table is a Black & Decker workbench.
On my honeymoon I put on a peek-a-boo blouse. My husband peeked and booed.
When I told Fang I was going to have my face lifted, he said, "Who'd steal it?"
I have so many liver spots, I ought to come with a side of onions.
Think of me as a sex symbol for men who just don't give a damn.
On Housework
The only thing domestic about me is I was born in this country.
I'm eighteen years behind in my ironing. I've buried a lot of my laundry in the back yard.
The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally put gin in the steam iron.
Best way to get rid of kitchen odors? Eat out
There's such a buildup of crud in my oven. There's only room to bake a single cupcake.
KINDERGARTEN (n.) is a German word literally meaning "a garden of children." It was coined in 1840 by German educator Friedrich Fröbel (1782-1852) by combining kinder ("children"--plural of kind, "child") and garten ("garden"). Kindergarten metaphorically described Fröbel's method of developing intelligence in young children by studying their individual natures, as a gardener studies his plants, and placing children in circumstances best enabling them to grow, flourish, flower. KINDERGARTENER (n.), from the German kindergartner, originally meant "kindergarten teacher" but by 1935, in America, meant "kindergarten pupil." The first kindergarten in America was opened in 1868, by Elizabeth Peabody of Boston, Mass. By 1879, the word was sometimes Englished as kindergarden. Source: Online Etymology Dictionary.
SCUTTLEBUTT is a nautical word dating from 1805 which meant "a cask of drinking water kept on a ship's deck, having a hole (scuttle) cut in it for a cup or dipper." The word combined scuttle ("opening in a ship's deck," or "hole ") and butt ("barrel"). The earlier term (1777) was scuttle cask. By 1901 scuttlebutt was nautical slang meaning "rumor," or "gossip" --traditionally said to be from the sailors' custom of gathering around the scuttlebutt to gossip. (In the same way, water cooler became a figurative expression for "workplace gossip" in the mid-20th century.) Source: Online Etymology Dictionary.
Published November 16, 2020
Dr. Jane Chambers, Editor and Head Writer
Ron Lowder Sr., Webmaster
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