Posted by Broder L. Jervell (Jerry) on October 10, 2005:

Well, John Nance, it started with you. In 1950, I lived on Cutter Mill Road in Great Neck, about two houses away from Vars Buick. You had wandered up to the neighboring house, looking for the gal who was to baby sit for you that night. She was nowhere to be found, and once I had learned the nature of your mission, I indicated that while I had no prior baby-sitting experience, I would be willing to pinch-hit for you that night. As I recall, you were en-route to another assignment, and were spending a few days in Great Neck. If memory serves me well, you were enroute from Fort Benning to an assignment in Newfoundland, or perhaps it was the other way around. That brought me to the Vars residence, and I believe Mr. and Mrs. Vars and your wife Pat, were all there, getting gussied up for a night out. I was given my instructions, and sons Glennen and John were sacked out upstairs. I had been invited to make myself at home, and did so. On the cocktail table in the living room, prominently displayed, was a copy of the 1946 Howitzer. I spent hours looking through it, and I immediately fell in love. I was in 10th Grade, about the point in life where one begins to decide what college to attend, and West Point as of that night became my target! Unfortunately for me, it became my only target, and no place else would even interest me. It was not a straight road from that evening of babysitting to being admitted to West Point -- from that point it would take me five years, but I entered and graduated with the Class of 1959. Other than for attending a social function with you after graduation in 1959 (I have a picture of that event), we really never crossed paths but perhaps once or twice. Oh yes -- I purchased my car from Vars Buick in the Spring of 1959! During the period 1970-1973 I was assigned to the Department of Social Sciences, and toward the end of the Academic Year in 1973, I was looking down the roster of cadets assigned to my section, and I came across the name "Nance, Glennen V." I was not aware that your sons, by that time, had grown up and no clue that either of them had become cadets, but I was absolutely certain -- without checking any further -- that this was the young man whom I had baby-sat in 1950. The combination of names was a unique fingerprint. When the section first assembled, I went through the normal routines where we all introduce ourselves and tell a little bit about ourselves. When it came Glen's turn, he said something minimal. When he had dutifully finished, I filled in the gaps, indicating what his middle name was, that his Dad had graduated in 1946, that his Mom's name was Pat (though older than me, she and her sister, Dodie, had always been the heartthrobs of Great Neck H.S. -- they were ravishingly beautiful women!), that you were in the car business on Long Island, etc. His face reddened in disbelief, and I knew I had made the connection correctly. He was your son. And, of course, I had to share that bit of history with the class. And so, astronishingly, the circle closed. Because of babysitting Glen, I had been inspired to attend West Point. And Glen was a student in my very last teaching stint there. I have fond remembrances of that circle of events. And so, John Nance, you made an enormous difference in this person's life. I have thanked you many times before, only a couple of times to your face. I now do so once again. Jerry Jervell

admin