This is something that I have intended to do since Poppy's death on New Years Eve, 2008. I discussed this somewhat with Gary but thought you would be interested in hearing about his career over the years and also some personal knowledge from me; which I either heard about or actually experienced. The career info for the most part has been compiled from records he retained over the years. And, at some point, I become part of his story.

A good way to start this would obviously be with his birth in Scotia, NY on 18 May 1923. In this regard, I've heard many stories about his early life and love of fishing; particularly with his cousins, Len and Ted. Lake fishing for trout, fly fishing on the lake and also experiences with ice fishing (brrrrr). There were also great memories of visiting his grandmother's farm where there was always the aroma of donuts and other goodies that she was so famous for. And, then there were big family clam bakes at the lake. As he got a little older, his interest shifted somewhat to deer hunting during open season and he remembered fondly (on several occasions) a remote cabin with his Uncle Ted and friends along with cousins Len and Ted. Here he said the men had very creative culinary skills with their delicious campfire meals even though it was freezing outside. He also became interested in quail hunting when visiting Sam and Joyce in TN. But even with the hunting interest, his main love of fishing never waned.

In June 1941, he went to work for the A&P Tea Co as a clerk/meat cutter @.50 an hour. In December 1941, he began working for the Army Depot in Schenectady, NY as a clerk; beginning pay, $.60 with raise to $.78 before entering the service in January 1943. At some point during this period, he was briefly married to a local girl and supposedly a baby girl arrived at some point. After basic training at Camp Flora in Mississippi, he became an instructor in Army Administration and Supply Procedures at an Ordinance Training Base in Mississippi and later a Radio Operator in Finchaven, New Guinea and Manila, Luzon; and finally operating High Speed Radio Nets using Morse Code in Toyko, Japan before his honorable discharge in January l946.

He was unemployed for about 2 mos before being re-employed with the U.S. government at the Naval Supply Depot, Scotia, NY earning $.92 an hour or $1,990 per annum. He remained at the Depot for several years in various positions as Laborer, Stock Clerk, Equipment Specialist and Fiscal Accounting Clerk; and with reassignments/promotions, etc, his salary upon transfer to Washington, D.C. was $4,455 p/a. Also, during this time he married (Vivian Komp, a family friend) and Gary and Bruce were born, 8/3/48 and 2/14/51 respectively. I'm not really sure what the family life was like while in the Schenectady/Scotia area but I did hear about fishing trips with Gary and Bruce and I assume there were numerous family get-togethers.

His transfer to the Navy Department, Bureau of Supplies and Accounts (BuSandA) was effective 3 Jan 1954 with the title of Accountant, GS-9 @5060 p/a. He was involved in several reorganizations within the Navy Department and thus, worked with the Navy Comptroller's Office for a time before being reassigned to the Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) formerly BuSanda. He held several positions in the systems accounting area and was involved in the implementation of several major projects; one of the most significant was implementation of a Uniform Data Processing System for Headquarters and Field Activities but also many other accounting systems/installations. In the ensuing years, he was promoted to Branch Head, Staff level and ultimately Division Chief, i.e., Head Honcho, GS-15 serving directly under the Comptroller, NAVSUP. He received Outstanding Performance Ratings almost annually, was awarded the Navy Superior Civilian Service Award and, though not selected, he was also nominated for the Federal Government Accountants Award. And, as you well know, he spent an ENORMOUS amount of time "on the road". In fact, before I ever knew Poppy, tons of travel vouchers crossed my desk and I couldn't help but think, 'just who is this person who spends so much time traveling'. IAE, over the years there were numerous trips to Mechanicsburg, PA, Philadelpia, Bayonne, NJ, Norfolk, VA, Oakland, CA etc and more exotic and lengthy trips to Japan, Guam, Panama, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, etc. He had a special liking for San Francisco, Oahu and lastly Toyko from his enlistment days.

When the family first moved to VA, they lived in an apartment in the Culmore area for a short time before moving to Owen St. Gary and Bruce were rather young at the time and Dawn was born on 16 Aug l956. But, I did hear that Poppy coached the boys in Little League and took the family on fishing trips. They also traveled to Scotia to visit family and friends. The family were members of Culmore Methodist Church and Poppy sang in the choir. He later joined the Men's NAVSUP Bowling League and was quite active in the Alexandria Harmonizers.

As time progressed, Gary joined the Army and Bruce was on the basketball team at Hammond High School. After graduation, Bruce began attending Old Dominion in NC but soon decided this was not for him and returned home. It was about this time that he ran into Nita, a classmate from High School, who was working in a candy store in the Landmark Mall. They very soon became inseparable and after a time, decided they'd like to move to FL where Nita's family was living. And, by this time, Gary had been discharged from the service and he decided to join them. After their move to FL, Poppy began spending alot of time with Dawn; taking her to the movies and at least one concert (Humperdinck I think) and also encouraging her interests in first, the guitar and ultimately the piano. She also ushered at several Harmonizer shows and he was there for her when Abby (the dog who originally belonged to Bruce) passed away. In l972, Bruce and Nita decided to get married and Poppy brought Vivian, her mother and Dawn to Fl (by train) to attend the wedding and reception following at Jack & Jim's. At some point, Gary moved back to VA and Poppy managed to get him temporary employment with the Navy Dept. He was there for a very short time before starting work with American Airlines. And it was here, of course, that he met Mandy. They later married in June l977.

I can't really recall my first memory of actually meeting Poppy but it was sometime in the early 60's when he first came to work in the Accounting Division where I was employed as a secretary. And, as I got to know him, I was very impressed with his knowledge and work ethics. Over the next few years, I was transferred to the Comptroller's Office as an Admin Assistant; resigned to stay home with Linda (for about a year) and then returned to a Secretarial Position in NAVSUP (working for Charlie Monday) and later as Poppy's secretary. Not sure when but at some point, Poppy and I began to realize there was something more between us than we bargained for. This was NEVER an issue at work however; we both worked very hard at our job(s) and everything went on as usual. Sometime later, some of my co-workers started encouraging me to do whatever necessary to obtain eligibility for a position in the accounting field and Poppy thought it was a great idea. With this in mind, I started taking night classes at GWU, i.e., accounting, admin management, etc. along with Ron Bishop who had recently been hired in our Division. And, as a result, in l967, I was re-assigned as a Fiscal Accounting Clerk and Ron and I kinda "learned the ropes together" in the organization. Here I should mention that I also received several "outstandings" but never from Poppy directly; probably would have raised some eyebrows. In any event, we remained friends with Ron and his wife, Phyllis throughout the years. We also worked very closely with Carol Stewart who was one of our liaisons in the suppy operations/ADP field. Ron, Phyllis, Carol and Bruce Johnson (who also worked with us and was later married to Carol) attended Poppy's Memorial Service.

In the early 1970's, I had been divorced for several years but Poppy didn't want to "rock the boat" but he did make a move to Southern Towers. I was also living at ST but in a separate building and we started spending as much time as we could together. He first bought a small 18' fishing boat and I believe some of you may have gone fishing on that boat. But not too long after that (l973), his lung collapsed and an operation followed; removing a cyst between the lining of the lung and the lung. After recooperating and returning to work, he sold the smaller boat to a friend and bought a 24' Trojan which we named the "Foxy Lady". Though we thoroughly enjoyed this boat for a few years, a 30' Trojan went up for sale in the marina and we decided to purchase it. So, he sold the 24' to other friends and purchased the larger boat, Foxy Lady II. He actually put it in my name in case there was a subsequent problem involving a divorce. And, as you know, we spent all our spare time at the marina, fishing, meeting up with friends we had made there, and enjoying the restaurants around Deale. Even in the winter time while the Foxy Lady II was up on blocks, we still went to the marina each weekend; electric heater on hand.

In the latter part of l978, Poppy began seriously thinking about retiring. As you may remember, he had two additional surgeries to repair damage from the first operation but he was still in alot of pain. It was at this time that he began pursuing a divorce; finalized later that year or very early l979. We also planned to get married right after his retirement and as you know, we got married on 16 May l979. It was a very small wedding with only local family attending. Gary Smith, Dawn's husband at the time stood up for Poppy and Linda for me. After the service, my parents took everyone out to dinner to celebrate. We moved almost immediately to St Pete initially staying with Bruce and Nita until we could get into our Carlton Arms apartment.

We had many, many happy times together over the years. Even before we were married, we visited Gary and Mandy in CONN and OK and; Bruce and Nita in FL, NC and FL again and also had many visits back to NOVA to visit with the family there. We were extremely happy when Linda and Terry decided to move to St Pete in l980. At this time, Nicole and Tara were little kids but we all had a great time visiting with Bruce, Nita and Derek to begin with. Both Kimmi and Jess were born later; Brad much later. After we had the Foxy Lady II transported to St Pete, we spent many hours fishing and also enjoyed numerous trips with Jack and Jim to various ports around Fl. Sadly, in 1985/6, Bruce and Nita moved the family to Stuart and our family get-togethers ended. But, later on, I remember an overnight camping trip with Bruce, Nita, Jack, Jim and the kids in the Ocala National Forest. And, will always remember our trip to Puerto Vallarta with Mandy and Gary. It was a blast!!!. Here I should also note that at some point after we moved to St Pete, Dawn and Linda both obtained divorces and remarried Kerry (11/81) and Michael (2/94) respectively.

In the early 1990's, we decided to down-size from the Foxy Lady to a small boat (a 23' Grady White) and finally to a trailerable boat (an 18' Pointer) that we kept in the backyard. Here Poppy mentioned on several occasions just how much fun he had taking the grandsons out boating and fishing. Also, at some point during this period, Poppy was on a ladder trimming some trees in the front yard and he fell with the ladder. He was a little shaken but luckily didn't break any bones and otherwise seemed okay. However, we did see the Dr ASAP for a check-over and after testing, found that he had an abdominal aortic aneurism. In a way, it was lucky that he fell or we might never have known about it. In any event, the aneurism was checked quite often and an operation was ultimately required. Digressing a bit, Here I should mention that when we bought the 18 foot Pointer, we purchased it from a man that said he really didin't want to sell it but he had found out that was going blind and couldn't operate the boat anymore. We didn't discuss the matter too much with him and never gave it much thought until a few years later, Poppy discovered that he had developed macular degeneration in one eye. It did affect his vision but he could still use the boat and also drive. But then, about 5 years later (at 70 yrs old), the macular degeneration had spread to both eyes and he was declared "legally blind". Here it made us wonder if the Pointer was jinxed!! In any event, Just prior to all this, Poppy had begun learning to play the piano (something he had always wanted to do) and was actually doing quite well until he could no longer read the music and regretfully had to give it up. And, of course, he could no longer drive a car or operate a boat. With this in mind, we very sadly sold our last boat and Poppy became dependent on me for getting around. And, as if this wasn't enough, he later developed COPD (Critical Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and became 100% dependent on oxygen 24/7. Even though we tried to function as normally as possible, it was a trying time for Poppy. And you know the rest!!!

As I'm nearing the end of this, I have to say that our marriage was made so much more meaningful by the love and support our 4 children and their wives/husbands, i.e., Gary/Mandy, Bruce/Nita, Linda/Michael and Dawn/Kerry. And I can't not mention our wonderful grandchildren; in order, Nicole, Derek, Tara, Jason, Abram, Jess, Jeremy, Kimmi, Brad, Bryan, and Kellen and since 94', Caree and Regan. And later, ggrandkids, Tylar, Avery, Aidan, Jackson, Reece, Madi, Brennan, Danny, Denton and Lucas; born after Poppy's death. I could spend alot of time talking about each one (obviously some more than others) but I'll just say that we enjoyed our times spent with them immensely and in fact, I still do. Here I should also mention that I have a plaque that reads, "Grandparents are God's gift to Children" but I sincerely think it should be reversed.

In summary, Poppy and I had a wonderful marriage; we were very happy and it was a marriage "meant to be". Every once in awhile, Brennan will ask me, "Do you miss Poppy" and I'll say "YES, very much" and he kinda looks at the ground and with great sincerity responds, "I REALLY miss him". Those two seemed to have a special relationship; probably cause he was so fascinated with Poppy's oxygen and also his cane. But in finally ending this, I will say again, I do miss Poppy very, very much as I'm sure you all do too.