From the event brochure, November 9, 2006
Master of Ceremonies Douglas Armstrong retired from Ithaca College in 1995 after a teaching career of 27 years as professor of Foreign Languages. Prof. Armstrong is a veteran of the U.S. Army and served during the Korean War as an Infantry platoon leader with the 7th Regiment of the 3rd Division.
Rev. Dr. James R. Henry is pastor/head of staff of the First Presbyterian Church in Ithaca. His career has included teaching English and journalism in public schools and universities, including last year at Ithaca College. He is a Vietnam era veteran having served the U.S. Coast Guard and as a chaplain in the U.S. Navy. He continues to serve voluntarily as a casualty assistance chaplain to assist Cornell military officers.
Guest Speaker David Juers is a Vietnam veteran who served with the U.S. Army. He was born on November 3, 1945, 57 days after the official end of World War II. As a very early “baby boomer” he grew up in Bucks County in southeastern Pennsylvania and attended George School, a Quaker boarding school in Newtown, PA. He is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University with a degree in Zoology.
While a graduate student at Rutgers where he was working on a degree in Zoology with a focus on Ecology and Limnology (the study of lakes), he received his draft notice and entered military service for the U.S. Army in September 1968. He served 10 months in Vietnam as a dog handler and returned to Rutgers in 1970.
Following completion of his master’s thesis in 1973, he worked at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York. He then went to Woods Hole, Massachusetts where he worked for Dr. George Woodwell at the Ecosystems Center of the Marine Biological Laboratory.
Mr. Juers moved to Ithaca in 1984 and worked at Cornell University in various departments before assuming his current position of Information Technology Manager for Claritas Inc. in 1992. Davis has two children, Elizabeth who is a junior at Colgate University and Eric, who is in the eighth grad at DeWitt Middle School.
The American flag hanging behind the stage flew on the destroyer USS Nicholson. The Nicholson sailed on every ocean in the world during its 22-year career and was decommissioned on December 18, 2002. The flag is on loan to Ithaca College for today’s celebration from David McMillen. It is a gift from his son who served on the USS Nicholson.