Class of '70, VMI

I opened the Dayton Daily News yesterday and suddenly there was an article from the Associated Press that was plastered across page 10 (with a picture, no less) about the investigation at school (see my earlier post).  Quite strange to see anything about VMI out this way.  Here’s the same article posted in the Air Force Times in case you all didn’t get to see it.  The one in the AF Times is less edited than most of the others I found.  Interesting point is that the investigation is into its eighteenth month when they usually last about six.  The Washington Times added that the copy of the complaint given to the AP was heavily redacted to not reveal the list of specific policies under investigation as well as any information about the complainant.

Below is from VMI Communications and Marketing that was posted yesterday.

From multiple news sources:

Nov. 7, 2009 – A Rat collapsed following a training event and was pronounced dead shortly after noon today at Carilion Stonewall Jackson Hospital.

John Alexander Evans, 19, of Highland, Md., collapsed in his Barracks room after completing a 10-mile road march with other members of the Rat Class. Cadet Evans was an International Studies major and a member of the Marine ROTC program.

The cause of death will be determined by a medical examiner.

There is a follow up video from WSLS, Roanoke about the march, with the link here.

Update, 11 November:  Gen Peay posted a statement on Cadet Evans on the VMI Communications web page.   Follow this link to the statement.

In case you didn’t get the notice about it, there is an interesting article in the Washington Post about the Institute including  a video interview with Gen Peay.  Click on this link to check it out.

VMI cadets have developed an underground transmitter and portable topside receiver that will allow trapped miners to communicate with those above ground. Another group of cadets is working to commercialize this life-saving device.

There will be an interview about this project on all public radio stations in Virginia during the week of 31 October — 6 November.

See the article on the VMI web site here for times and stations.

From VMI Communications:

The VMI community mourns the loss of two retired professors during the summer.

Most recently, Col. Albert L. Deal III, 71, died Aug. 1, 2009, at Carilion Stonewall Jackson Hospital.

Deal, professor emeritus of mathematics, joined the VMI faculty in 1962 and served until his retirement in 2003.

Earlier in the summer, Dr. Dean B. Foster, 89, professor emeritus of psychology, died June 6, 2009.

Foster served on the VMI faculty, including a period as department head, from 1961 until his retirement in 1985.  He was particularly noted for his study of sleep patterns. His 28-year probe into sleep habits, which continued throughout his faculty years at VMI, included several inventions.

The full article is here.

A good example for the rest of us……

In late June, the VMI Foundation learned that a bequest made to it by the late Robert B. Rust Jr. ’34 will result in a gift of more than $14 million for VMI.

“This magnificent gift is the largest bequest realized by the VMI Foundation,” said Brian S. Crockett, chief executive officer of the VMI Foundation.  “Any gift of this magnitude will have an outsized effect,” said Warren J. Bryan ’71, vice president of the VMI Foundation for major gifts, who arranged the original memorandum in 1997.  “Mr. Rust’s gift will mean approximately $630,000 in additional scholarship aid for our cadets, an increase of 15 percent in available scholarship assistance.  And, coming as it does, in an economic downturn, this money is especially valuable.”

Read the rest of the article here.