United States Coast Guard Academy - Tide Rips Yearbook (New London, CT)

Page 213 text:

RAYMOND BENNER STARBUCK Fullerton, California Brenner migrated from the heart of the orange country to hecome the most versatile athlete of the class of ' 45 if not the most outstanding. For three years he has broken up the running attacks of the best of our gridiron opponents, and has held down varsity positions in tennis and boxing, with an iiiterclass 165-pound title to his credit in the latter. To go on, he ' s tlie best slugging out- fielder in the Softball circuit, one of our top g olfers, and a hot shot at I)illiards and ping-pong, to mention a few. Rangy and quiet, Buck will react to even the most sensational scuttlebutt with a calm You don ' t say . He does no more work than the rest of us, but gets licttcr marks. Femnies to him is purely singular, and he deserves a large compliment in this respect. It ' s easy to see why his two greatest gripes are restrictions and having to be back aboard on time. His interest in forestry developed into a very potent case of poison ivy, and Brenner was a memljer of the rolled-up sleeve squad for an agonizing length of time. It ' s hard to figure out liow he can be such a maxo poker player willi that perpetual smile on his face. X ilhout a doubt. Buck is the best- natured guy in the class.

Page 212 text:

I NEILUS ANDREW SPEARS, JR. Kansas City, Kansas Neilus came to the Academy a fugitive evangelist from an Arkansas travel- ing camp meeting, spouting tlie gospel and Icngtliy quotations from French literature. So nuicli for the man in tlie tree; now for the man on the ground (From his first sermon in the Ozarks. I Leading an uneventful life, this righteous soul ran afoul of two of tlie most hlack-hcarted fiends that any of lis have ever liad tlie misfortune to room witli, and succumlied to their evil influences. He now spends his time hlighting the lives of tiie small nuniher of upstanding characters still anu)ng us. In fact, he has hecome so solidly entrenched as a typical hell raiser of ' 15 that we decided that no poor, henighted soul was hetter fitted to endure the agony of editing this catalogue of characters than our own Lantrin. Whether it I)e leading a hymnal session, or hooming out the chorus of Pistol I ' ackin ' Mama , his seltzer-hottlc hass voi©e is still the greatest of his vices. A demon on tlic commando course and a sujjcr savoir in the classroom, Neilus is the first cadet in Academy history to l)oast of a star hegotten positively witliout the aid of lexthooks in any form. The finest mind in the class if he ' d only study , to quote the Moose. He attrihutes the success of this hook to his New Deal liberalism, and even llie most stalwart of us l ci)uhlicans have got to admit that here ' s one ap] lication that ' s proved successful.

Page 214 text:

JEREMIAH MILTON STARK Denton, Texas One thing tliat can be said about Jerry is that he is an individualist. We don ' t try to figure out what lie ' s going to do any more, because he just won ' t; his idosyncrasies are on the contra-everything order. He dislikes triteness, social customs, water at meals, and people who don ' t get the word. Jerry does serious reading on such sujjjects as astronomy, sociology, eugenics, logic, etc. When asked al)out previous athletic experience, he answered that he had been on the mathematics team at college. In spite of this bent, he still hasn ' t mastered the railroad time tabic, and once returned to the Academy two days early because of a misinterjjretation of one. Jerry seems to have a bit of trouble getting back, having been forced to pawn jiis class ring to raise the necessary funds on anotiier occasion. His capacity for figs is legendary; the word has it that he consumed twenty-two at a single sitting. Like many of the boys who come here from the South, Jeremiah can ' t get used to the cold weather and resorts to the use of jersey, spare blankets, and a batbrolic even during summer evenings when be retires. It takes more than a little cold to keep him awake during the day, though; he just sacks up in the nearest closet or under a bunk and dies.