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Glenn C. Wilhide, Jr. ’48 No. 16587 21 Mar 1926 – 20 Jan 2005 Died in Colorado Springs, CO Interred in West Point Cemetery, West Point, NY In the 1948 Howitzer, K-1 proclaimed itself the “most spirited company in the Corps.” It was energized by a twelve-man First Class made up of “seven provincials and five Brats.” Glenn Castle Wilhide, Jr., was counted as one of the latter, though he had not grown up on Army posts. His father, Glenn Castle, Sr. ’22, had left the Army after two years and married Margaret Hagedorn of Portland, OR. Their first son, Glenn, was born 21 Mar 1926, in Baltimore. The family eventually settled in Ashtabula, OH, which Glenn considered his home town. Glenn’s record as a diligent student and class leader at Harbor High School earned him a congressional appointment to West Point. On 1 Jul 1944, World War II was being fought, Glenn, Sr., had been recalled to duty as a lieutenant colonel in the Ordnance Corps, and “Army brat” Glenn, after six months at Millard’s Prep School in Washington, entered West Point. In the sweat of Beast Barracks and the chill of the Pine Camp maneuver, Glenn began a lifelong fellowship with his classmates in Company G-1, all anticipating graduation as the Class of 1947. However, 1945 brought an end to Plebe Year, night area guard, the war, and prospects of a 1947 graduation when the Academy returned to its four year curriculum. As one of the younger members of the Class of ’47, Glenn became part of the class that would reinstate Second Class (Cow) Year and graduate in June 1948. The additional year in a newly constituted company further strengthened traditional cadet bonds among K-1’s energizing dozen. Glenn was a very versatile cadet. He was a man of parts: he diligently attended to his duties in the company and in the classroom; he skied when there was snow and golfed in the good weather; The Pointer depended on his skill as its circulation manager, and the woodwind section of the cadet orchestra welcomed his talent as a clarinetist. His faith flourished in consonance with the honorable principles of the Corps and confirmed the flawless integrity evident throughout his life. After commissioning in the Infantry, Glenn’s world-spanning military career began with the Ground General School and the Officers Basic Course. Between the two, he stopped in Towson, MD, to marry Flora M. K. Burch, known as “Kit.” She would become his alter ego for the next half century. They first reported to Germany immediately following the Berlin Airlift, with Glenn leading a platoon in K Company of the 26th “Blue Spader” Infantry Regiment. They trained at Grafenwoehr and maneuvered with the 1st Infantry Division in the face of the Red threat across the border in Czechoslovakia. In June 1950, their daughter Gretchen was born in Nuremberg. In 1952, the young family returned stateside to Dahlonega, GA, where Glenn taught American military history, organization, and leadership to ROTC cadets at North Georgia State College for two years. There, in March 1953, their first son, Glenn C. III, who went by “Chip,” was born. By the spring of 1955, Glenn, with the Infantry Advanced Course behind him, his Ranger Tab on his shoulder, and new orders in hand, headed west to command Company D of the 38th Division at Ft. Lewis, WA. Glenn’s experience particularly suited him for his subsequent duty: advisor to the Vietnamese Military Academy in Dalat. That, along with subsequent success as senior advisor of the MAAG Commando Training Center, shifted his career pattern in the direction of education, training, and personnel management. He returned to Ft. Knox, KY, to join the 5th Infantry Training Regiment as an instructor and company commander and later became assistant G-1 and secretary of the General Staff of the Armor Training Center. Glenn and Kit’s second son, David, arrived in March 1958, five months before the family departed for Command and General Staff College. More schooling followed. Glenn was selected to join the West Point faculty, and the family moved to Peekskill, NY, while Glenn commuted to Columbia to complete his master’s degree in literature. In the fall of 1960, he joined the English Department, where his instruction in language, literature, and ethics effected a balance in the professional education of his cadets and those colleagues who followed Glenn’s example. Glenn then served a second tour in Germany: first with the G-1 staff, 24th Infantry Division, and then in command of the 2d Battalion, 34th Infantry, in the continuing tensions of the Cold War. Glenn later served in Heidelberg as chief of USAREUR Infantry Staff Branch before returning to Washington and the Department of the Army General Staff. His experience in education, training, and command, combined with his personal integrity and human insight, enabled him to serve as an exemplary chief of the Personnel Training Requirements Division. In July 1971, after 23 years of distinguished service in uniform, Glenn retired to Connecticut and continued to serve in mufti: eleven years in education as the registrar and an instructor of English at the University of Connecticut-Torrington. During that decade, using his natural tenacity and mission-oriented background, he went before the State Legislature and Senate, successfully advocating the preservation of the Torrington Branch. As a military and civilian educator, Glenn Wilhide influenced countless young lives for the better. In 1982, Glenn retired yet again, and he and Kit enjoyed two years in Ramsau, Germany, before finally settling in Durham, NH, to hike, ski, and travel. They sojourned frequently in England, where they walked the countryside in the company of friends, and Glenn explored firsthand his literary study of the “Matter of England” and the roots of his Episcopal faith, which, like his devotion to his family, was absolute. In Glenn’s final years, advancing Alzheimer’s disease gradually took him from us as he moved into that Long Gray Line, yet he continues to “grip hands with us from the shadows and strengthen our hearts.” A classmate

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