50th Reunion

In September, 1940, having failed my senior year at Andover and having passed(?) are-exam in math, my Headmaster, Claude Fuess, asked me where I intended to go to college. My first choice was the U. S. Naval Academy (no appointment) and my second choice was Yale (no acceptance).

He suggested that he and I travel to a small college in western Massachusetts where he had graduated from. After some negotiations and assurances from Dr. Fuess, Doctor King said there was an empty bed in a freshman dorm. That's how I came
to Amherst.

In the autumn of 1941, I received my appointment to the Naval Academy and left Amherst to enter the Academy in 1942.

I have always maintained that my real education stopped when I left Amherst, as the Naval Academy was a true trade school in those days.

I graduated in June, 1945. On my way to the Pacific, I was offered a ride on USS Indianapolis by an old friend, Capt. McVey, and would have been on her ill-fated journey but left her at the last moment to stay in San Francisco with my bride, Carlyn, for a few more days. I then caught the USS Idaho in Okinawa and a Kamikaze.

I commanded a destroyer for a short time while in the Korean War due to the incapacity of the Captain and the Exec. The Navy, not appreciating my talents by offering me my own command, I left in 1953 and joined the family business, The Myers Group, Inc. in Rouses Point.

I grew this small customs brokerage from that obscure base to a national company with offices in all major ports in the U.S. and some abroad. I have now retired and my son, Richard, 6th generation in the Myers Family, is now running it.

Carlyn and I have been happily married for forty-eight years and our only child, Richard, has blessed us with two wonderful grandchildren, Caroline and John.

We are spending our time between Stowe, Vermont, and Sanibel Island, Florida, enjoying tennis, skiing, biking, rowing and doing some consulting work in Washington as well as retaining Chairmanship of The Myers Group.

 

William R. Casey