Class Note 1948
Issue
May-June 2020
I had a cheerful conversation with John VanRaalte and his son and daughter. John doesn’t have his usual vigor but is hanging in there. It reminded me of a fun letter I received from Jim Field ’45. He remembers playing John in a challenge match set up by coach Red Hoehn for tennis team position the day before the first match in 1946. Showing how mixed our ages were due to the war, Jim was no callow youth at that point. He had been at Dartmouth for 18 months and then spent three years in the Army Air Corps as a fighter pilot, returning to William & Mary because, “I didn’t want no boys college no more.” After one year, however, he called Dean Neidlinger, who allowed him to come back to Dartmouth, where he graduated from Tuck School in 1948.
I noticed in Frederic “Tad” Comstock’s obituary that he joined the U.S. Marine Corps, where he served with an engineering demolition unit during the battle of Iwo Jima, where, with Okinawa, more than 20,000 troops were lost in 1945. By then our submarine fleet had virtually eliminated Japanese shipping and their Air Force was history except for the kamikaze attacks. Nonetheless, our military had made plans to invade Japan. As part of the occupying forces, I walked the beach where I was told my outfit, the 112th Regimental combat team attached to the 1st Cavalry Division, was supposed to land. It was enfiladed on both sides by high cliffs honeycombed with gun emplacements.
We also recently lost Foxy Parker, a very nice, modest man who was class treasurer, member of the executive committee, and attendee of all our reunions. He regularly visited his daughters in Colorado, who noted, “The Parker family first went to Vail [Colorado] for a spring break ski trip in 1968 and Foxy fell in love with March’s bluebird skies and deep powder. His swooping descents in Stein Erickson style were a treat to watch. He took his last runs at the age of 89, swooping a little more carefully but with the same joy as ever.”
—Dave Kurr, 603 Mountain Ave., Unit 331, New Providence, NJ 07974; (781) 801-6716; djkurr@verizon.net
I noticed in Frederic “Tad” Comstock’s obituary that he joined the U.S. Marine Corps, where he served with an engineering demolition unit during the battle of Iwo Jima, where, with Okinawa, more than 20,000 troops were lost in 1945. By then our submarine fleet had virtually eliminated Japanese shipping and their Air Force was history except for the kamikaze attacks. Nonetheless, our military had made plans to invade Japan. As part of the occupying forces, I walked the beach where I was told my outfit, the 112th Regimental combat team attached to the 1st Cavalry Division, was supposed to land. It was enfiladed on both sides by high cliffs honeycombed with gun emplacements.
We also recently lost Foxy Parker, a very nice, modest man who was class treasurer, member of the executive committee, and attendee of all our reunions. He regularly visited his daughters in Colorado, who noted, “The Parker family first went to Vail [Colorado] for a spring break ski trip in 1968 and Foxy fell in love with March’s bluebird skies and deep powder. His swooping descents in Stein Erickson style were a treat to watch. He took his last runs at the age of 89, swooping a little more carefully but with the same joy as ever.”
—Dave Kurr, 603 Mountain Ave., Unit 331, New Providence, NJ 07974; (781) 801-6716; djkurr@verizon.net