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MEMORIAL ARTICLE
Publishd Assembly Jul '96
Mason Pittman Rumney, Jr. No. 15419 Class of 1946
Died 11 June 1995 at Tulsa, Oklahoma, aged 70 years.
Interment: Ashes scattered at Steamboat Springs, Colorado and
other locations.
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Mason (Mase) Rumney was born 4 October 1924 in
Grosse Point, Michigan. Mase graduated from the Asheville School
before entering the University of Michigan where he studied engineering
for two years. He received his appointment to West Point and
joined the Class of 1946 on 1 July 1943.
Cadet life presented no problems for Mase academically.
Not only did he do well himself, but he was always willing to
help his less gifted classmates. He also was an excellent athlete,
lettering as a very good halfback on the Army soccer team. It
was early into Plebe year that his roommate, Jiggs Gigante, learned
that Mase was not a "detail" man; in fact, never did
he sweat the details. Jiggs recalled: "I first became aware
of this characteristic getting ready for a full dress parade.
That day my other roommate and I, for some reason, failed to
check Mase before he got outside. He had no sooner left the room
when we heard the outraged roar of several upperclassmen. When
I got outside, I soon saw the one small detail Mase had neglected;
he had failed to pull his suspenders up over his shoulders. They
were hanging below his trousers."
Upon graduation, Mase was commissioned in the Cavalry
as a second lieutenant and assigned to Fort Knox, Kentucky for
the Basic Course. It was there that he developed many lifelong
friends and he was always most proud of the fact that he was
a member of the Class of 1946 Cavalry/Armor. His tour at Fort
Knox was also notable as he married Mary Krentler on 29 November
1946. He attended jump School at Fort Benning, Georgia and then
went to Germany for duty with the Constabulary. From Germany,
the Rumneys traveled to Fort Campbell, Kentucky where Mase was
assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. Again to Fort Knox for
the Advanced Course and then duty with the 3rd Armored Division.
In 1953, Mase was selected to attend the University of Virginia
to receive his Masters in Nuclear Physics. Mase and his family
spent the next eight years at Fort Bliss, Texas where Mase was
assigned to the Office of Special Weapons. Interspersed in those
eight years was an unaccompanied tour to Korea and attendance
at C&GS, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1965, the Rumneys traveled
to Iran where Mase was assigned to the Army Mission. He returned
to the States for assignment to the Defense Atomic Support Agency
in Washington, DC. Mase retired in 1966 and remained in the Washington
area doing research and consulting with various agencies, including
the Illinois Institute of Technology, Stanford Research Institute,
the National Security Council and Harry Diamond Laboratories.
In 1976 Mase and family moved to Steamboat Springs,
Colorado where he pursued a wide variety of interests such as
community planning, innovations in education, regional economic
development, computer communications and advanced telecommunications.
Mary died in November 1988 from pulmonary fibrosis.
Mase married Beverly Travitz in Steamboat Springs
in 1992. Mase developed cancer and died 11 June 1995 at the Cancer
Treatment Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is survived by Beverly;
two sons, Mason and John; a daughter, Susan; two step children,
Debra Hamilton and Richard Graham; and his sister Barbara Hoag.
His administrative assistant for his projects,
Penny Gulliver, prepared some anecdotes about Mase which were
read at the funeral. Excerpts say much about the man, Mase Rumney:
"It's hard -actually impossible - to put the essence of
Mason Rumney on paper in a few words. He never could, and neither
can I. Once several years ago, Mason was preparing to host a
luncheon conference on business incubation, and three of us were
reviewing what he planned to present to the group. The whole
idea was to limit the number of ideas to be considered to no
more than four so as not to confuse the conferees. He agreed,
and promised that he would try to do that. At lunch, as Mason
began to hold forth, two of us exchanged glances, and got out
pencils. On the back of a paper napkin, when Mason had finished,
I had counted 53 separate and disparate ideas and Tim Garner
had 54. He was a man with a million ideas and a thinker of independent
thoughts. His independent thinking can be characterized by what
he was told as a junior officer by an exasperated C.O. who had
been listening to Mason expound for some time: 'Rumney, you are
the only man in the US Army who thinks he is self employed.'
He seldom thought in terms of the here and now, but of the future
and what could be done about it. As one of our mutual cohorts
recently said: 'Mason had lots of ideas which we thought were
weird, but which we have finally realized are the ones we are
working on now!' At all times, he was a man of unstinting generosity
of spirit, willing to overlook the failings of others and to
laugh at his own. Even now I can hear him say, 'Never mind the
details! Let's have a party!' "
Jiggs Gigante delivered the eulogy at the funeral
and excerpts from his remarks tell a lot about Mase: "Throughout
his life, Mase exhibited many endearing qualities. He always
enjoyed a good laugh at his own foibles. He was neither vindictive
nor mean spirited. He was always devoted to his family, his beloved
Episcopal Church and his friends. Mase was a man of good will,
a cheerful, unconventional free spirited man who wanted nothing
more than for everyone to be happy."
Classmate Leon Musser wrote of the funeral: "The
memorial Service was also typical Mase. At the close of the communion
service, the priest announced a special request by Mase before
he died. The recessional hymn at the conclusion of the service
was 'So long, it's been good to know you.' As you can imagine,
the congregation belted it out lustily for Mase."
The Class of 1946 joins the family and friends
of Mase Rumney in declaring, "Well Done, Mase; Be Thou At
Peace!"
'46 Memorial Article Project and his wife, Beverly
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