Memorial Article and Remembrance Project

Posted Thu, 02/17/2011 - 22:00

Dear Classmates,

I hope that you are having an enjoyable start to the New Year and that all is well.

As you probably know, AOG publishes a biannual slate of memorial articles, TAPS, for deceased West Pointers. To date, our class has lost 16 members (see table below) and we have not yet submitted any TAPS articles. This provides us with a unique opportunity to clear our entire memorial article backlog in one TAPS issue, and to establish a classmate-driven, volunteer system for honoring future fallen classmates.

Accordingly, the Class of 1994 proposes to: (1) write memorial articles for every currently deceased classmate whose next of kin desires a memorial article, and (2) establish a voluntary, classmate-driven mechanism to honor each fallen member of our class in the future with a timely memorial written shortly after their passing. We are calling these two items, respectively, Phase One and Phase Two of Grip Hands: The Class of 1994 Memorial Article and Remembrance Project.

We have spoken to AOG and, if we complete all articles on our currently deceased classmates by June 1, 2011, we can have our own memorial articles come out in the Winter 2011 issue of TAPS. Furthermore, as a show of class unity, all articles will carry the byline "Written by the Class of 1994 and the family of [the deceased].”

Here is a list of our currently deceased classmates:

Flex Writers: Jennifer Ruiz, Paul Mlakar, Stu Shapiro

As you can see form the spreadsheet above, two of the memorial articles already have volunteers. This is because Tom Witt's memorial article was already in process before we decided to formally establish Grip Hands: The Class of 1994 Memorial Article and Remembrance Project, and because as soon as I heard about the idea, I jumped at the chance to write the memorial article for my good friend and roommate Jason George. It is my sincere hope that there are many other classmates reading this email who will feel similarly moved to serve in some capacity on this important and worthwhile cause.

Accordingly, we are looking for volunteers to: (PHASE 1) serve as memorial article writers for our currently deceased classmates, and (PHASE 2) serve as part of a steering committee for Phase Two to help find and "tutor" a memorial article writer when a classmate passes away in the future. In both cases, we have the procedural knowledge and instructions from the AOG to make volunteering a relatively painless process. Indeed, this procedural knowledge is a cornerstone of this initiative: We are seeking to reduce or eliminate the barriers that may otherwise prevent a proper memorial article from being completed through institutionalizing all of the relevant memorial article knowledge, and providing "tutors" from a steering committee who can help quickly locate and assist memorial article writers in the future. Should you decide to step forward to honor a classmate and friend by writing a memorial article, you will receive the assistance of the steering committee through the entire process.

To summarize, Grip Hands: The Class of 1994 Memorial Article and Remembrance Project will be a volunteer-driven initiative of the class that will clear our backlog of memorial articles in a single TAPS issue published in the late fall of 2011 (Phase One). Phase Two of the initiative will establish a steering committee to make memorial article writing as easy as possible in the future by establishing a single person (from the steering committee) who will work with a volunteer writer following the death of a classmate, guiding the writer through the TAPS publication process.

To volunteer to write a memorial article for one of our deceased classmates (Phase One), please contact me at ted@pointcap.com or Geoff Tumlin, primary point of contact for Phase One, at gtumlin@gmail.com. To volunteer to serve on the steering committee to help identify and guide future memorial article writers (Phase Two), please contact Stu Shapiro, the point of contact for Phase Two at sfshapiro@aol.com. If you want to participate in this project, but you are not precisely sure how you can help, please contact any one of us and we will help determine a way that you can serve on this class memorial project. We will enthusiastically take all volunteers!

Please consider being part of Grip Hands: The Class of 1994 Memorial Article and Remembrance Project to honor the lives of our departed friends and classmates.

With Courage We Soar,

Ted Williams
President
USMA Class of 1994