Deceased November 29, 2014

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50th Reunion Book Entry

In Memory

Perry Sawyer died on Nov. 29, 2014, in Bradenton, Fla. Perry was born in Hackensack, N.J., and came to Amherst from Hackensack High School, where his sports career was notable enough for him to be inducted, in 1973, into the Hackensack High School Sports Hall of Fame. At Amherst he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and played football (all four years) and baseball (three years).

From May 1942 to September 1945 he served in the Army Air Force as a B17 radio operator/gunner and flew in more than 50 bombing missions, receiving the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. During this period, Perry met and married Muriel Kruger, later to have two sons and a daughter with her.

After discharge, he began a career with the New Jersey Rehabilitation Commission, first as a vocational counselor and then in a series of supervisory positions. When he retired in 1979, he was an assistant chief of rehabilitation services. During his many years of living in Oradell, N.J., Perry was active in Cub Scouts, Little League Baseball, Babe Ruth Baseball, the Parent-Teachers Association, the River Dell High School Boosters Club and the Reformed Church of Oradell. In retrospect, he wondered how his devoted wife could have sustained all this, along with her job as a manager at Lord & Taylor.

After retirement, they moved first to a condominium on Longboat Key, Fla., then, after a discouraging experience with a hurricane, to Freedom Village at Bradenton, Fla., in 2005. Muriel died in 2006; one son, David, died in 2004. Surviving are a daughter, Sharon (with husband); and the other son, Jeffrey (with wife); David’s widow; three grandsons; and two great-grandchildren.

Richard Ward ’42

50th Reunion

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In early spring of 1942, the Anny Air Force beckoned me to Westover Field, the first of many Air Force fields to be visited over the next three and a half years. One assignment was Radio Operator Gunner with our B-17 crew, attached to the 30Ist Bomb Group, Lucera, Italy. Upon completion of fifty-one combat missions, I was honored to be awarded the Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters. Another assignment was for training in Separation Classification Counseling, with subsequent duty as a counselor.

On April 10, 1943 at Selman Field, Monroe, Louisiana, I married my Hackensack High School sweetheart, Muriel Kruger, Kathryn Gibbs '41. We have two sons, David, Lafayette '68 and Jeffrey, Lafayette '70, and a daughter, Sharon. We are committed to helping disabled citizens to live a better life. My occupational ladder included titles as a Rehabilitative Counselor, District Supervisor and Assistant Chief of Rehabilitative Services. During one three-year period, I was privileged to direct a Research and Demonstration project on Independent Living for severely disabled persons. The project revealed that timely and appropriate rehabilitative services could substantially elevate severely disabled persons from dependency to independent living with resulting benefits to family and society.

In 1950, we moved into our home in Oradell, New Jersey. For thirty years, we were involved with Cub Scouts, Little League Baseball, Babe Ruth Baseball, the Parent-Teachers Association, the River Dell High School Boosters Club and the Reformed Church of Oradell. How my devoted wife, Muriel, sustained all this, and was employed as a Department Manager at Lord & Taylor at the same time, continues to amaze me.

After retiring in 1979, and leaving the snow shoveling, lawn-

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mowing and raking, we moved to our condominium on Longboat Key, Florida. But after experiencing a "no-name" storm, we decided on moving to Bradenton where our home borders the 18th fair­ way and our swimming pool cage does not stop all the golf balls. We have resumed raking lawn-mowing and added weeding and pool maintenance. We have the beauty of flowers, birds, trees and beaches. We have time to "smell the roses."