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MEMORIAL ARTICLE
Published Assembly Jan '52
Reginald Oras Shaw No. 15684 Class of
1946 Killed Jan. 26, 1951 in a highway accident near
Tulsa, Oklahoma, Aged 25 years |
Aged heads were bowed that will not rise again
and many hearts stood still when word came that Reg had lost
his life in a collision with a large bus on a narrow highway.
Sorrow runs deep in the loss of an only son in whom one is well
pleased. Grief is without words when the husband and father is
taken from the arms of a young devoted wife and an infant son,
but it is my privilege to write, not of a sorrow that knows no
bounds nor of other anguished hearts who find no words to speak,
but of a life well lived and deeds well done, though his years
were much too short.
Reg was our first born. He came to us on an early winter
morning, January 16, 1926, at Okemah, Oklahoma. Upon the loss
of our second son, Thomas Wade Shaw, Reg became our only child,
but despite this handicap his life from the beginning was orderly
and well balanced in all things. The natural charm with
which he was so abundantly blessed came from his mother.
We lived in Tulsa and New York so Reg had his early education
in Holland Hall in Tulsa and Horace Mann in New York. Later he
entered Tulsa Public Schools and graduated from Will Rogers High
School in 1942 as an officer of his class, captain of the track
team, and an active participant in the full life of an outstanding
institution. Enrollment in Tulsa University followed immediately,
but his heart was pointed toward West Point and his appointment
was earned on competitive examination. West Point claimed
him on July 1, 1943, and he graduated June 4 in the Class of
1946. Along with his academic degree and commission in
the Air Force, Rag sent home the Major "A" earned In
track, and this award joined some 200 other trophies, medals,
and citations which remain in his room as silent witnesses of
youthful achievements. There the Army "A" casts a protective
pattern around his World War II Victory Medal and the Army of
Occupation Medal with the Japan Clasp.
Reg flew jets over the Arctic out of Fairbanks during the
long winter of 1947-1948. On changes in assignment and at every
opportunity he returned to Oklahoma and Connecticut to see friends
and loved ones. His capacity for making friends appeared
to be without limitation. In turn, he never faltered in
his friendship for others and I never knew him to undertake a
task that was not completed with distinction. He was a finer
son than I had any right to expect and in our close association
over the span of his life, there was never a serious misunderstanding
between us.
From childhood, Reg was a member of the First Christian Church
at Tulsa. With a sincere attitude toward others he also
had an abiding faith in God, and took just pride in the high
standards of moral conduct expected of a West Point graduate.
He was a good speaker and I recall a quotation used by him in
1944 in an address before the Tulsa County Bar Association. He
spoke on "West Point Today", and he said:
"Our ideals are like stars,
We are unable to touch them with
our hands;
But, like a sea-faring man on
a desert of water,
Following them, we reach
our destiny."
On another occasion before a fraternity group
at the Tulsa University, I heard him use for the first time a
quotation by Lincoln, to be used often by him later, when he
said,
"I want it said of me
By those who know me best,
That I plucked a thistle and planted a flower,
Wherever I thought a flower would grow.
Reg went through life planting flowers in the hearts
of others. This philosophy of good living seemed to become a
part of him and the genuine happiness that he brought to all
about him is the truest evidence of the worthwhileness of his
life.
The 49th Fighter Group, with Eddie Rickenbacher
insignia, left for Japan on October 26, 1948, shortly after a
gala occasion in Greenwich, Connecticut, where announcement had
been made of the engagement and approaching marriage of Dorothy
Grace Montague to our Reg. Japan was new to him.
Misawa Air Base on Northern Honshu became the pivot of jet operations.
To the Air Force he gave time and talent, but his heart was in
Connecticut. Months later, on August 20, 1949, the final marriage
vows were spoken at Christ Church in Greenwich, thus bringing
full realization to a romance that withstood the perils of months
and years of separation. Dorothy and Reg were man and wife.
Their happiness was complete. A lovely honeymoon back to
Japan, six months of duty in the Orient. And then the return
home to personally take charge of his oil operations in Oklahoma.
We were proud of Reg's record as a Regular Air Force Officer.
We shared with him the thrill of a new and promising career in
oil.
A son was born to Dorothy and Reg in Tulsa on May 20, 1950. How
happy are we that this son bears the name, Thomas Reginald
Shaw, after both our boys now gone. This infant son is made in
the likeness of his father and the loveliness of his mother.
On the occasion
of his death, Rag was enroute to one of his oil leases near Oilton,
Oklahoma, a new well on production. When the message came it
was not easy to take the word to our Dorothy, his wife.
Recently I opened a file belonging
to Reg in which there was a single sheet of paper. Alone on this
sheet in Reg's own handwriting were these words:
"It is difficult to make a man miserable
who has developed a sense of worthiness in himself, and a kinship
with the Great God who made him".
-His Dad
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