Friday, November 14, 2014

Friday's Faces From the Past: "Busy Upperclass Days"

Here's another photo from my dad's military scrapbook, from his days in navigator training at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, Texas (August 12, 1951 to April 11, 1952):


"Nanos" is Art Nanos, who I wrote about in a previous post.  Here's what I could find out about the other men pictured:

Joseph Gaylor "Joe" Halpin Jr. was born January 26,1929, in Missouri, the second child of  Joseph Sr. and Rosetta Halpin.  His family lived in Kansas City during the 1930 Census, and that was his home of record.  He graduated from Rockhurst University (a Catholic university) in that city in 1950 with a Bachelor of Science degree.  He was a member of the Sodality of Our Lady and Alpha Gamma Delta.  Joe married Rosina Baumgartner and they had at least two daughters, Zina Marie in late 1955 and Mary Eileen in early 1957.  Later that year or early in 1958, the family moved from Dallas, to Arlington, Texas  Joe was a mechanical engineer in the Airflyte division of the Chance-Vaught corporation of Dallas.  The family lived at the same address in 1992, and Joe was still living there as of May 6 of this year (based on voting records).


Frederick Randolph "Fred" Allen's home of record was Larchmont, New York.  He attended the University of Tennessee College of Law, where he was a member of Delta Sigma Phi.  He married Dorothy Lee Marsh on May 3, 1952, in Yonkers, New York, shortly after graduating from navigator school.  Art Nanos was an usher at their wedding.  The couple went to Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina where Fred reported for B-26 training on May 14, 1952.  Because of his fairly common last name, I don't have any information about Fred after this point.


William "Bill" Val Ryden was born January 9, 1929, in Illinois, the second child and oldest son of Valdner C. and Edith Ryden.  His family can be found on the 1930 and 1940 Censuses in Peoria, Illinois, his home of record.  He graduated from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in 1949, majoring in business management.  He enlisted in the Air Force on December 20, 1950, and was released from service the same day as my dad, April 10, 1955.  Dad says they worked together in the same building at Continental Casualty Company (now CNA Financial) in Chicago in the late 1950s.  From at least 1983 on, he lived in Sarasota and Bradenton, Florida, where he died May 3, 2004.

ETA February 2015:  I was recently contacted by George Reardon, a former co-worker of Bill Ryden, who read this post.  He told me that after working for the Continental Casualty Company, Bill later worked for New York Life and lived in Red Bank, New Jersey.  Bill and George both joined Charles Stedman & Co., Inc. in 1968.  "It later changed its name to The Charles Stedman Group.  It was an insurance agency/brokerage that specialized solely in medical clinics nationwide -- clinics like Cleveland, Ochsner, Lovelace, Mayo, and others.  We sold and administered life, disability, medical, accident, retirement, and malpractice insurance to the doctors and their staffs," according to George.

"The Stedman company was originally headquartered in South Bend, Indiana.  In August of 1968, Bill and I drove a truck containing the entire business from Indiana to Sarasota, [Florida]," said George.  Bill retired from The Charles Stedman Group in the late 1970s, "but ended up making a lot more money in the real estate business, which his wife had gone into."

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

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