1952

Ed Fitzgerald is our only classmate who made the U.S. Marine Corps his career. He retired as colonel in 1983. At the 221st birthday of the corps in Boston, Ed received the Semper Fidelis Award for his support of the Marine Corps family throughout the years and his "dedicated and inspirational civic and community leadership."

Ed's original plan was to teach school but he enlisted in the Marines during the Korean War. He admired the Corps and the people who were part of it and stayed for 31. He moved 18 or 19 times. His favorite places were Camp Le Jeune, N.C., Boston, and Newport, R.I., to which he retired in nearby Portsmouth.

After wife Marjorie died in 1990, he married Winnie in 1992. She lived three miles away but he had to go to a golf tournament in St. Louis to meet her. The couple have numerous children and grandchildren between them.

After retirement he stayed active in the Marines and took successive jobs with defense contractors in the Newport area. Currently, he raises funds for the Marine Corps Scholarship Fund, which distributes over a million dollars a year in $3,000 or $4,000 bites to the children of mostly enlisted Marines who could not otherwise go to college. And he is a substitute teacher in the local high school. He could do this almost everyday. Today it was computers, yesterday it was science, and the day before that something else. Teaching at last.

Other classmates were Marines: BillHastings whom Ed sees frequently. JimFowler was in and out of active duty. Gene Cesari left early for the Corps. Andy Stewart was a Marine but left, went to medical school and then joined the Air Force, retiring as a colonel.

Our only classmate in Nebraska is George "Nick" Rambour III. There was never any doubt that Nick would return to Columbus, Neb., to join the family realty company. On his mother's side, he is the fifth generation of a family that emigrated from New York state and farmed Nebraska soil before opening the real estate office which now specializes in farm sales and management.

Nick's paternal grandfather was a Bavarian braumeister who came to Columbus to start a brewery.

There are advantages galore in Nebraska. The bird hunting is still phenomenal. George has pretty much given up an active big-game hunting hobby, having shot many animals around the world, but he still hunts birds. He and Lenore now travel to the numerous corners of the world. Spain, Portugal, and the Canaries last year. South Africa and Victoria Falls this year.

Nick took a brief leave of absence from Nebraska during the Korean War. He played football in the army for two years at Ford Leonard Wood.

The couple have two girls and two boys and six grandchildren. The two boys are, not unexpectedly, with the real estate business. The girls have gone to Hawaii and Detroit. There is a George IV whose first son, again not unexpectedly, is George V: the seventh-generation Nebraskan.

10 Grove St., P.O. Box 830, Pittsford, NY 14534; (716) 385-1010; (716) 385-8958 (fax)

52 Going for the Gold. 45 and counting.