On Memorial Day, be thankful for the world we have — and remember those who helped us create and defend it.
There is a place near my home — in a rural county in middle Tennessee — that is especially beautiful. A dirt path leads off from the main road, through a hay field, up to an old barn nestled just at the base of a small hill. It’s like a scene from a painting. For some reason, every time I drive past (which is often), I’m struck by a sense of gratitude — for my family, for the church and school community that so enriches our lives, for the simple pleasures of peace at home — the meals with friends, the long treks to volleyball tournaments, and the joy of watching my kids struggle to train a new puppy. I’m grateful because I understand that there is nothing that I did to truly “deserve” the life I’ve been given.
Read more at National Review
Read More......
Showing posts with label remembrance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label remembrance. Show all posts
Monday, May 25, 2015
Americans gave their lives to defeat the Nazis. The Dutch have never forgotten.
MARGRATEN, Netherlands — They haven’t forgotten. For 70 years, the Dutch have come to a verdant U.S. cemetery outside this small village to care for the graves of Americans killed in World War II.
On Sunday, they came again, bearing Memorial Day bouquets for men and women they never knew, but whose 8,300 headstones the people of the Netherlands have adopted as their own.
Read more at the Washington Post Read More......
On Sunday, they came again, bearing Memorial Day bouquets for men and women they never knew, but whose 8,300 headstones the people of the Netherlands have adopted as their own.
Read more at the Washington Post Read More......
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Memorial Day: A Day of Remembrance
Memorial Day - "Once each May, amid the quiet hills and rolling lanes and breeze-brushed trees of Arlington National Cemetery, far above the majestic Potomac and the monuments and memorials of our Nation's Capital just beyond, the graves of America's military dead are decorated with the beautiful flag that in life these brave souls followed and loved. This scene is repeated across our land and around the world, wherever our defenders rest. Let us hold it our sacred duty and our inestimable privilege on this day to decorate these graves ourselves -- with a fervent prayer and a pledge of true allegiance to the cause of liberty, peace, and country for which America's own have ever served and sacrificed. ... Our pledge and our prayer this day are those of free men and free women who know that all we hold dear must constantly be built up, fostered, revered and guarded vigilantly from those in every age who seek its destruction. We know, as have our Nation's defenders down through the years, that there can never be peace without its essential elements of liberty, justice and independence. Those true and only building blocks of peace were the lone and lasting cause and hope and prayer that lighted the way of those whom we honor and remember this Memorial Day. To keep faith with our hallowed dead, let us be sure, and very sure, today and every day of our lives, that we keep their cause, their hope, their prayer, forever our country's own." --Ronald Reagan (Via: Patriot Post.US)Freedom - “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” --Ronald Reagan, U.S. President 1981-1989
The Necessity of Remembering - "A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do." --Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of The United States
"There comes a time in the affairs of men when they must prepare to defend, not their homes alone, but the tenets of faith and humanity on which their churches, their governments, and their very civilization are founded." --Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Hat tip: Lou Copes, Via Restore America
Photo: Arlington National Cemetery
See here for local Memorial Day events. Read More......
Monday, April 13, 2009
George Taylor reflects on Fred Decker, a friend
Retired prof’s wisdom will be greatly missed
By George Taylor
Fred Decker was a friend of mine.
Fred W. Decker, 91, died April 3 in Corvallis, nine days after his wife of 66 years, Charlotte. Born July 5, 1917, in Portland, he was the son of John William and Emma Sophia Schlickaiser Decker. Fred graduated from Benson Polytechnic High School and received the Associate in Engineering degree at Multnomah College in Portland. He held a B.S. degree in physics from Oregon State University, an M.S. degree in meteorology from New York University and a Ph.D. in physics, meteorology and mathematics from Oregon State University.
And I was proud to call him a friend. I met Fred shortly after moving here in 1989. At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of this outspoken but highly intelligent man. He began dropping by my office on a regular basis. We would chat about the weather, politics and other subjects, and he would tell stories. My goodness! The man could tell stories! He would often begin with “George, have I ever told you about … ” and I would usually say “No, Fred, tell me.”
Often Fred’s visits would coincide with a busy time in my day, and I would sometimes be a bit brusque and tell him I was too busy to visit. He never seemed to get offended, but would simply promise to return another time. And he would.
Fred was quite a sight in the 1990s. He usually rode his bicycle to campus. Mostly he wore a dark overcoat and a black bicycle helmet. And he would often keep his helmet on, even when inside the building.
In many ways, he was a prototypical “absent- minded professor.”
And a diligent and brilliant one at that.
He joined the OSU faculty in 1946 and served until 1981. He taught courses in engineering physics, astronomy, climatology and theoretical and applied meteorology. He directed a teaching and research program that led to the establishment of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at OSU. Fred wrote more than 80 papers, reports and articles plus books including “The Weather Workbook,” “Weather Map Study” and “Science Travel Guide.” After retiring, he taught meteorological courses by correspondence for OSU. He frequently appeared in court as an expert witness as a forensic meteorologist.
Fred spent four years in Washington as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education, U.S. Department of Education, from 1981-85, playing a leading role in management and policy of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement.
Fred was definitely “old school.” This caused him to be ignored or belittled by some “modern” scientists, but I greatly respected and admired the qualities he embodied: hard work, integrity, seeking after truth, respecting others, and encouraging young people. Fred, to me, embodied the word “gentleman.”
Fred was preceded in death by his parents and his wife, Charlotte. He is survived by his daughter, Jane, of Tucson, Ariz., son and daughter in law Bill and Janet Decker of Sunnyvale, Calif., daughter- and son-in-law Rainy and Gene Takalo of Damascus, four granddaughters, one grandson, two great grandsons, sister-in-law, one niece and one nephew.
He will be missed. I will miss his phone calls especially, and remember how our calls would end. Rather than saying “goodbye,” Fred would say “God bless.”
God bless YOU, Fred! You enriched my life.
George Taylor retired as Oregon State University Climatologist last year and now operates Applied Climate Services of Corvallis. He can be reached at taylorgh@comcast.net. Read More......
By George Taylor
Fred Decker was a friend of mine.
Fred W. Decker, 91, died April 3 in Corvallis, nine days after his wife of 66 years, Charlotte. Born July 5, 1917, in Portland, he was the son of John William and Emma Sophia Schlickaiser Decker. Fred graduated from Benson Polytechnic High School and received the Associate in Engineering degree at Multnomah College in Portland. He held a B.S. degree in physics from Oregon State University, an M.S. degree in meteorology from New York University and a Ph.D. in physics, meteorology and mathematics from Oregon State University.
And I was proud to call him a friend. I met Fred shortly after moving here in 1989. At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of this outspoken but highly intelligent man. He began dropping by my office on a regular basis. We would chat about the weather, politics and other subjects, and he would tell stories. My goodness! The man could tell stories! He would often begin with “George, have I ever told you about … ” and I would usually say “No, Fred, tell me.”
Often Fred’s visits would coincide with a busy time in my day, and I would sometimes be a bit brusque and tell him I was too busy to visit. He never seemed to get offended, but would simply promise to return another time. And he would.
Fred was quite a sight in the 1990s. He usually rode his bicycle to campus. Mostly he wore a dark overcoat and a black bicycle helmet. And he would often keep his helmet on, even when inside the building.
In many ways, he was a prototypical “absent- minded professor.”
And a diligent and brilliant one at that.
He joined the OSU faculty in 1946 and served until 1981. He taught courses in engineering physics, astronomy, climatology and theoretical and applied meteorology. He directed a teaching and research program that led to the establishment of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at OSU. Fred wrote more than 80 papers, reports and articles plus books including “The Weather Workbook,” “Weather Map Study” and “Science Travel Guide.” After retiring, he taught meteorological courses by correspondence for OSU. He frequently appeared in court as an expert witness as a forensic meteorologist.
Fred spent four years in Washington as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education, U.S. Department of Education, from 1981-85, playing a leading role in management and policy of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement.
Fred was definitely “old school.” This caused him to be ignored or belittled by some “modern” scientists, but I greatly respected and admired the qualities he embodied: hard work, integrity, seeking after truth, respecting others, and encouraging young people. Fred, to me, embodied the word “gentleman.”
Fred was preceded in death by his parents and his wife, Charlotte. He is survived by his daughter, Jane, of Tucson, Ariz., son and daughter in law Bill and Janet Decker of Sunnyvale, Calif., daughter- and son-in-law Rainy and Gene Takalo of Damascus, four granddaughters, one grandson, two great grandsons, sister-in-law, one niece and one nephew.
He will be missed. I will miss his phone calls especially, and remember how our calls would end. Rather than saying “goodbye,” Fred would say “God bless.”
God bless YOU, Fred! You enriched my life.
George Taylor retired as Oregon State University Climatologist last year and now operates Applied Climate Services of Corvallis. He can be reached at taylorgh@comcast.net. Read More......
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
