Thanks to USNA classmate DB for resending the email about Glen’s passing away last Sunday morning from “numerous health issues and illnesses he had endured over the years”.
As Glen’s obituary highlighted, he excelled on the piano and in gymnastics, and I remember him singing during our Plebe Summer marches- he was one of the few who sounded good. I’m pretty sure Wade was his first year roommate, but can’t recall who he roomed with the last three years. Maybe Topo? I think it was during our first year Spring Break when he came home with me to New Jersey, along with Wade, Vance, and Brian. 48 years ago!
I don’t recall seeing Glen at any of our USNA reunions, but did have an email conversation about 15 years ago when he was living in Maryland and was between jobs. Over the last several years, though, never got any replies back from him on our emails.
Glen’s passing has made me think back to those fours years in Annapolis which shaped us for our military profession and adulthood. It was a tough program- we lost a third of the class in those four years, mostly during the first several weeks of summer. While we were trained to help each other out to get through academics and professional development, it was an environment with very little room for personal empathy when someone was going through a tough spell. But that was the culture back then. Glen was a very proud individual, and like all of us, he took some hard knocks during those four years, and he grew from those experiences.
God bless you Glen, and God bless Keith Wray who was the first of our company to pass away some ten years ago.