Posted by Ken Lang on June 11, 2002:

June 9, 2002 Vietnam War veteran William Crites, 70, dies By RICK Ruggles World-Herald Staff Writer William R. Crites, a retired Army colonel who served in the Vietnam War and taught at the U.S. Military Academy, has died at age 70. Crites grew up in Omaha and graduated from Benson High School in 1949. He died Thursday [in the] hospital of a blood disease. He fought in Vietnam in the mid-1960s and injured an arm and leg, including losing toes, when he stepped on a land mine, said his son, Peter Crites. The son, of Kensington, Md., said his father enjoyed the military. "He liked the fact that it was an honorable purpose," he said. "It gave him discipline that he thought he wouldn't have had otherwise. I think he genuinely loved the men that he served with." After spending two years at what is now the University of Nebraska at Omaha, William Crites received a bachelor's degree at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., in 1956. He also earned a master's degree in military history at Duke University and a master's degree in hospital administration at Baylor University. Crites taught and did research at West Point in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was an administrator at Walter Reed Army Hospital in the 1970s before retiring. He is survived by his wife, Narris, of Asheville; his former wife, Shirley Crites of Omaha; daughter and son-in-law Betsy and David Von Kerens of Omaha; son Peter and daughter-in-law Alice; a brother, J. Robert Crites of Hendersonville, N.C.; and five grandchildren. A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at First Baptist Church in Asheville.

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