Posted by Malcolm Epley Jr. on January 26, 2002:

ASSEMBLY MEMORIAL for JOHN HENDERSON DUDLEY NO. 8813 Died 2 October, 1994 Fairfax, Virginia Aged 87 Years Interment: Cremated. West Point Cemetery, West Point, New York John Henderson Dudley To his two young nephews, John H. Dudley (Uncle Jack to us) already had become a legend in the decade following his graduation from West Point in 1930. Ensuing time and developments have served only to enhance it. And his passing on 2 October, 1994, gave impetus to illuminating a notable record of service he mostly downplayed. Since he had no children of his own, the role model that was his life is a wonderful legacy for the descendents of those of us who were blessed with his personal friendship. In those early years, we youngsters sensed the high esteem and respect Uncle Jack earned from family elders. What an adventure it was to explore the great house where he had grown up in Oakland, Calif. Somewhere in almost every room, West Point memorabilia was on show. Upstairs, his West Point uniform, helmet and saber were displayed in a special closet, "The Armory". In the sub-basement crawl space was the rifle range he had installed as a teenager to prepare for his Military Academy future. Jack's 1939 Master's Degree in Engineering at M.I.T. locked him in on an engineering career path. Then came World War II. Here his role was to apply engineering to help others attain maximum effectiveness for combat, even though he worked frequently under combat conditions himself. Details filtering home during those war days were sketchy. But over time it was revealed he built (among other things) airfields in New Guinea, the Bismark Archipelago, the Philippines, Japan--- in places with then such unheard of names as Finschhafen, Hollandia, Morotai, Leyte, Luzon, Nagoya and Yokahama (Legion of Merit, two Commendation Ribbons). In the postwar years, his posts included such as Army Field Forces (1946-47, Fort Monroe, VA.), Armed Forces Staff College (1947-48, Norfolk, VA.), Office of Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2 (1948-50, Washington, D.C.), Army War College (1950-51, Fort Leavenworth, KA), Chief, R & D Division Planning Branch (1951-54, Washington, D.C.), Engineer, VII Corps (1954-56, Germany), Commanding General, 18th Engineer Brigade (1956-58, Fort Leonard Wood, MO.), Assistant Commandant, U.S. Army Engineer School (1958-60, Fort Belvoir, VA., Oak Leaf Cluster to Legion of Merit.) Only when World War II was well over were we to learn of Uncle Jack's quiet but vital 1942-43 role in the selection of the original atomic research sites in New Mexico (his assignments here even today are recorded officially only under almost blind Manhattan Project designations). When his 1960 retirement as a Brigadier General finally brought him back to his greater family on the West Coast, in Long Beach, Calif., our more frequent personal contact with him transformed our legend into a human being. We youngsters (by now mature adults and long since joined by a niece) nevertheless came to realize our heroic figure was very much in real life what our earlier visions had only supposed. Here was a role model for all ages --- disciplined, steady, intelligent, thoughtful, thorough, honest, friendly, interested, articulate, innovative, practical, realistic, deliberate, knowledgeable, inquisitive, dignified, loyal, prudent, proper... and always proud of his West Point roots. We, in turn, took great pride in his record and our relationship with him. The women in his life offer another measure of Uncle Jack. His mother and aunts, born in the Sierra goldfields and educated in California's finest universities, helped shape the drive for perfection, integrity and strength of character that were his lifelong marks. This was bolstered by great support from his older sister, Jane (our mother). Then there was the intellect, sparkle and personality of Lillian Steinschneider, whom he wed in New York City on 12 Sept. 1931. One delightful anecdote emerged at WWII's end: Jack and Lillian both had been working on the Manhattan Project that created the atomic bomb, but neither could (or would) tell the other because of stringent secrecy requirements. However, from her New York office vantage point, Lillian could follow Jack's progress in the field. But she never let on until the official lid was off. She and Jack were ideal teammates until her death of cancer in _________. Over the years, M.I.T. classmate James (West Point '36) and Margery (Gerri) Lampert had remained close friends with the Dudleys. When Jim died --- also of cancer --- at almost the same time as Lillian, it was natural that Jack and Gerri should eventually join forces. They were married _________, and her new family immediately fell in love with her, too. Upon retirement, Jack was appointed to the founding engineering department faculty of California State University at Long Beach, where he started the Soil Mechanics Laboratory. In his memory the CSULB Civil Engineering Faculty named the departmental library the "John H. Dudley Memorial Library." The record shows that John Henderson Dudley was born Sept. 25, 1907, in Oakland, Calif. He was the son of Margaret Henderson Dudley (daughter of an engineer who superintended major corporate mining operations in California's Mother Lode) and Capt. Clark DeWitt Dudley (a U.S.A. cavalryman commissioned on the field of battle during the Philippine Insurrection after the Spanish American War.) Jack Dudley successfully blended these family and West Point heritages into a unique balance of leadership, technical, logistical, managerial and military skills, and carried that expanded heritage forward through war and peace, engineering the foundations for an effective American military presence wherever on this planet duty called him. As one of Uncle Jack's classmates has written, "He was a true West Pointer." Indeed he was.

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