On July 30th I received an e-mail from Ann Jochum which included an article from an Indiana magazine with a picture.    Ann wrote:

My sister Sue found this picture which shows our father being instructed by one of the first woman teachers at the Academy I wanted to share this photo for 2 reasons: 1-the teacher’s name is RoseMary – my father married a MaryRose. 2- historic value of a photo like this that could be displayed in the Visitor Center at the Academy.

Scribe’s note: The picture was of insufficient quality to print herein; however, the short squib under the picture said:

One of three WAVES assigned to the instructional staff at the Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md. is Rosemary Grimes of Oakland, Calif.  She is shown giving preliminary training in aerial navigation to 2/c Midshipman Joseph B. Jochum (deceased) 4th Co. of Sutterland, Neb.  Rosemary holds a Masters Degree from the University of California and is the first woman to teach Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Scribe’s note: on page 138 of the “B” Bag is a similar picture with the notation-A pretty WAVE shows Bill Evans (deceased) 5th Co. how to fly a link trainer.

I found this to be quite interesting so I asked my source of all SHIPMATE knowledge, Maria O’Shea, if she recalled this subject ever being in SHIPMATE, she said no but suggested that Jim Cheevers (Senior Curator at the Museum) might have some information on the first female teacher at the Academy.  I sent Jim an email with all the info. I had and he responded:

This is fantastic.  We have bragged since 1972 that Dr. Rae Jean Goodman was the first woman faculty member and that Lieutenant Commander Georgia Clark in the same year became the first woman officer to teach at the U.S. Naval Academy.  We now have photographic evidence on Wave Rosemary Grimes teaching aerial navigation in 1948.

Of course we could still quibble about the first woman teaching at USNA.  On November 6, 1936, Professor Amelia Earhart (1898-1937) of Purdue University spoke to the first class, the Class of 1937, in Mahan Hall auditorium about her solo flight from Honolulu to Oakland.  Superintendent, Rear Admiral David Foote Sellers, had justified inviting her to USNA because she was on the faculty of Purdue where she was teaching aviation.  She arrived on November 6, dined in the Superintendent’s Quarters, spoke that evening in Mahan, and spent the night.  The next day she and her husband attended the Navy versus Notre Dame football game in Baltimore and on Sunday they attended Chapel services before departing.

Scribe’s Note: Thank you Ann for sending me the item to begin with, Maria for your help, and Jim, once again you have demonstrated why we so much desire and look forward to having you speak to us at each of our reunions.  Our 70th comes up in three more years and we hope you will be able to again give those of us who can still make it to Annapolis some more historical highlights.  Thank you also for finding the picture in the “B” Bag.

A new and different subject, some of you will recall my comments about difficulty in getting emails through to Classmates.  Gordon Ehrman 17th Co. and the Shipmate staff currently fall in this group.  I cannot send mail via AOL to either of those addresses and must use gmail.  Fortunately it works.  Email to Chick Rauch 6th Co. recently started bouncing so I called him on the phone to determine if he had changed his address.  I had a good conversation with Esther who told me Chick was in the wood shop doing his annual thing of making something to be auctioned off with the money going to one of their favorite causes.  Scribe’s note: at the bottom of Chick’s autobiography in the 50 Year book you can get an idea of the kind of work I’m talking about.  I also asked Esther to ask him to tell me what he found out that might help me with Ehrman’s problem.  Chick came back with an email saying:

Dave, in my case, a technician who had never heard of Chick Rauch (and, in fact, I have now been retired from the University for 20 years and there are only a few folks there that I still know well) for some reason, in cleaning up a bit, eliminated my email account.  I retired as a Vice President Emeritus, and one of the services that I was supposed to receive was the continuation on the University email system.  But the young person who eliminated my account had no knowledge of my status or anything else about this Rauch guy.  Fortunately two of the folks who still know me well are the current President and the person who is just now taking over the Information Technology Department.  When they got into it, things moved fairly rapidly.  I am not sure this will help the other classmate.

Scribe’s note: although it won’t help I appreciate the information and I’m glad to have you back in the distribution.

Since the last column I have learned of our loss of five Classmates and three wives.  They are:
          Classmates
                   19th Co.  Barton, W.H.             8/25/15  *
                   12th Co.  Bryan, R.C.               8/28/15  *
                   19th Co.  Kosiba, R.E.              9/10/15
                   4th   Co.  Rawlins, R.D.            3/30/15  * #
                   nongrad   Mather, R.I.               8/21/15
* biography in 30 Year book
#biography in 50 Year book

Wives
           Betty Edelson  12/31/14 wife of Burt Edelson 20th Co. (deceased)  Betty and Burt raised three sons.
          Kitty Matthew 10/28/14 wife of Bill Matthew 7th Co. deceased).  Kitty and Bill raised one daughter.
          Janet Bryan 3/5/15 wife of Bob Bryan 12th Co. (deceased).  Janet was very active in the First Presbyterian Church serving as a deacon and elder.  She was a choir member for many years.  Janet also served on the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Museum of History Associates and the Museum of the Cape Fear.  Together with her husband, she spent many years researching and writing a family genealogical history, and co-authored four books on family history.  Janet and Bob raised three children, two girls and a boy.

** A business note, after the last luncheon Charlie Mertz gave me the Treasurer’s report.  As of 8/31/15 we have $7,387.34.

After the last column I asked for some inputs and Paul Riley 13th Co. responded with an item I liked so much I put it out on email so many of you will have read it; however, for those of you who didn’t get it I am repeating it here.  Paul writes very well and I believe you will enjoy his story. Dave: I believe you asked us to report travel. Here goes:

Evelyn and I departed on a three week vacation in late May and have just completed it back in Houston in early August.  Obviously that sentence makes no sense without explaining that three round trip airline flights and one car trip were involved.  First, we were off to Indiana for a granddaughter’s graduation.  The second trip was in July to the Myrtle Beach area where I baited the sharks (which did not take the offer).  From there, a road trip was made to the NC mountains, where we assembled all three of Evelyn’s siblings, in-laws, out-laws, and a long lost cousin of mine, the purpose being to attend several of the summer programs of the Brevard Music Center.  Interestingly, both Evelyn and I had spent time at the exact lakeside location as teens when it was the site of a summer camp.  Then back to the beach for another dip and the flight home.  The final segment of our vacation was spent in Boston visiting our youngest son (the classical guitarist) and wife.  While there we drove over to Quincy and toured SALEM (CA-139) which was only in commission 1949-59.  The interior is well kept as are all the topside surfaces except the 3”50 gun mounts and the teak deck.  This visit completed a trio of tours of the area’s three historic ships, the others being MASSACHUSETTS at Fall River and CONSTITUTION in Boston harbor on previous trips.  Naturally we relished being away from Houston’s heat which felled one of my fellow tennis players with a non-fatal heart attack while we were gone.  But the weather will be ideal in November when the Navy football team comes to play the University of Houston, which game we plan to attend.  Advise [email protected] if you want to connect while here.  Bye, Paul R

Thanks Paul.  I enjoyed reading it again and stand in awe of the fact that you and Evelyn are still that mobile.

On Fri. Sept. 11th we gathered at Army-Navy for a luncheon.  The food and service were good; the company was better. We had seventeen Classmates, wives and widows augmented by two of the Rasmussen daughters and one of their husbands.  Present were:
          Betty & Dave Carruth 9th Co.
          Libby & Cab Davis 17th Co.