Posted by Bruce Clarke on August 31, 2020:

If you ever needed help, he was there. He would open his home to your fiance. He would help with a task with tools or sweat. In every case he was there! Toby (I don't think that I ever knew that his name was Colin until I heard Muriel call him that at some point during firstie year.) and I were in M-2 our last two years as cadets. He and his roommate Bill Griffin were masters at winning in card games from me several nights a week in their room. As a cadet he was low key but always seemed to get things done on time and in a remarkable fashion. After graduation we were to go our separate ways only to be reunited 3 years later at Fort Benning. The Halvorsons lived right down the street from me in Columbus, GA. We were both armor officers in exile to the Infantry Officers' Career Course. We rode together to Building 4 at Fort Benning on many days. Early on during our exposure to the Infantry School we made an overnight trip to Washington to visit our personnel assignment officers. As armored officers we were worried about our fate as we came out of the Infantry Advanced Course. Also during that year at Benning the Halvorsons graciously gave my fiance Sue Higgins a place to stay when she came to visit in the spring before our wedding. I reciprocated by caring for their cocker spaniel several times. This got me in trouble one day when Sue called and I told Amy to get off the bed. I then had to explain that Amy was the Halvorson's cocker spaniel. Such was the life of fairly new captains. The Halvorsons were off to Colorado University in Boulder for graduate school while Sue and I went to CA. We got to gather on a very blustery evening during the holiday break to play bridge at their home in Boulder. Our close relationship was to continue while Toby was a TAC and I was teaching in the Social Science Department. We tailgated before football games together, played cards together and talked about our kids. Toby and I would even chat about his cadets out of my classroom. Following our assignments at West Point we went our separate ways again only to be reunited occasionally during mutual tours in the Pentagon in the late 70s and then several years ago over some great Chardonnay at an Italian restaurant in Old Town Alexandria. We relived old times and caught up on the travails of our children and showed off pictures of our grandchildren. It was like we had never been apart. Sue and I will miss our dear friend Toby, his dry wit and loving devotion to Muriel and his kids. Be thou at peace my friend.

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