John Irvin Alger

West Point, 1965

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by David Kuhn on February 23, 2010:

John and I first met as starving plebes trying to find a sport that would accept us and allow us to get off company tables. Both of us had high jumped in high school, albeit not very impressively. I remember being somewhat embarassed to admit I had only jumped 5'11" in high school. John's mark was a little better, but not by much. Imagine our surprise when Coach Crowell told us we had the two best marks in the class and had made the team. Jay Stewart was the third high jumper to make the team. We were overjoyed. I migrated to triple jump and javelin as my high jump mark stayed essentially the same for four years. John, on the other hand, greatly improved each year and won a lot of meets for us in the high jump. He was a fierce competitor, particularly against Navy. I also had the pleasure of having John in a lot of classes and ultimately as a member of Brigade Staff. In everything he did, John was very professional and very much a gentleman. John died as he lived, with a lot of grace and dignity. He "ran the good race...fought the good fight." We'll miss you, John, but we won't forget you.

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