SEC’Y: CAPT Dave Carruth, USN (Ret.)

7206 Danford Lane; Springfield, VA 22152

P: 703-569-1354 E: [email protected]

WEBMASTER: John Tsiknas

15644 Caldas De Reyes, San Diego, CA 92128

E: [email protected]

WEB SITE: usna.com/classes/1948

CLASS OF 1948 SHIPMATE COLUMN

NOVEMBER 2007

When Sumner passed away I contacted the classmates or wives whom I thought could give me some background on the Shipmate column. I found their responses to be very interesting and believe you too will find them so.

Jean Lochner- “Sumner held most of the positions and spoke for the Class, although I do not think he was ever really voted in-it was just dropped on him and he picked up the ball and ran with it. Pete Goldman was on duty at USNA-’58, ’59, ’60-some time in there. When he left he turned over the Shipmate article and Homecoming to Ray. Ray had them both for 6 or 8 years. Dick Hoffman took over Shipmates and Ray kept Homecoming (mostly as treasurer) until a year before he died when he turned it over to Dudley Holstein and some things to Phil Rogers. Speaking of that I found in Ray’s desk a few weeks ago a stack of post-a-cards-4 cent ones that belong to the class!!!! They ought to be auctioned off to collectors!! Any takers?”

Pete Goldman-“I don’t know that I can remember that long ago. I know how I got the job. Ed Jaworski, a USMC Major at the time, was the custodian of all material and acting as scribe while on duty at USNA (1958). I was moving Greta in in August and got a call from Ed to the effect that he was a “lowly Marine” and didn’t know all us Navy types and would I help him out with the scribe business. I said OK. The next thing I knew, Ed and Ruth drive up in their station wagon, dump two file cases of stuff on the lawn in Admiralty Heights, said thanks and off they went. We laughed about this for many years thereafter. I kept the duties during my tour at the Academy and gave it up to ? when I went back to sea as XO, PUTNAM (DD-757) in 1960. That is about all that I can remember.”

Dick Hoffman- “As best as any of us can Remember, SHIPMATE Class Columns were not very formally structured in the days of our youth. SHIPMATE’S “Class Notes” were put together by Louis Gulliver, Class of 1907, with Ed Jaworski and Pete Goldman providing ’48 inputs from the Washington area. Somewhere in the ’58-’59 time-frame, Ray Lochner picked up our SHIPMATE column and began a regular if sometimes sporadic ’48 column. I relieved Ray in 1962 with goal of providing a ’48 column to every issue of SHIPMATE. At the beginning of my tenure I was on shore duty at Patuxent River with easy access to our Washington and Annapolis members. However in ’65 I became CO of VP-8. Although homeported at Pax, I was informed the squardron’s next deployment would be to the Philippines to support the Viet Nam operation. It was pretty obvious I could devote little or no time to the class column. So in late ’65 at a Class luncheon at Ft. McNair, and I asked for a volunteer to take over the column. I can only remember one hand going up-that of Sumner Moore—and the rest is History! Sumner’s first column was in February 1966”.

Dick tells me that his memory was supplemented by Sumner when they worked together on Dick’s introduction of Sumner who was supposed to be the speaker at the San Diego reunion but had to cancel because of Jane’s health.

Suffice it to say that starting with that February issue Sumner served for 40+ years as the class spokesman and reporter keeping us melded as a group and apprising us as to what we were doing both as individuals and groups. He knew the class and its history as evidenced by the “Fifty Years Astern, 1948 Class History” and “The Evolution of the Naval Academy Since 1948” which he wrote for our 50 book. Of course he did the cover for that book also. A man of many talents, he will be missed.

I received a note from Jim Welsh in France “Jim Welsh, luckily spry at 82, and wife Claude recently spent two weeks in Martinique, an early foreign service post, as house guests of Michel and Therese Yoyo. An e