Back when the Hokies were winning consistently...I would make the boys stop at that intersection on our walk back into town from Lane...so I could call my Dad to tell him that VT won again! My Dad never attended a game with me...but I know how much he appreciated the fact that I had season tickets...and a group of guys to attend the games with. We christened that phone the "Hokie Victory Phone"...and I know my Dad cherished those calls...as I did making them.

That pay phone is gone now...and so is Dad. He passed peacefully on Thursday evening with his wife, his two daughters and me at his side. It was the most remarkable and powerful thing I have ever witnessed in my life. Dad had a stroke back in February...and he never fully recovered. As the months passed...a number of ailments began to take their toll...and it became a real struggle for him. We engaged with Hospice a week ago to help ease his journey home.

Dad was 86...and a U.S. Navy and Korean War veteran. While with the Navy...he studied electrical engineering...and was recruited by the CIA as a Telecommunications Specialist. He spent 31 years with the Agency...and traveled the world with them. Somewhere during that time...the Agency issued Dad a Colt Detective .38 Special...which I discovered in his personal belongings on Saturday. I never knew he had it. He told me he was issued a firearm while serving in Saigon during the final days before the fall of the U.S. Embassy...but I always assumed he returned it when he got home. Quite a keepsake now.

So many of you have been down this road before me...and now I understand. Doesn't seem possible that he's gone.

Come September...I believe I'll stop at the intersection of Washington and Main one more time...and quietly let Dad know that the Hokies won again. I know he'll appreciate the call...just as he did all those calls...all those years ago.



[Post edited by great2bahokie at 06/14/2021 10:01AM]