Richard S. Peres, my father, born 2.5.1932 in Council Bluffs, IA, and was the Class of 1959 passed this morning at the age of 92. Almost 4 months to the day his wife, my mom passed.
They grew up in Council Bluffs (Omaha metro). His father was a career Army Master Sergeant who served during WWI, WWII, and was asked to re-enlist for Korea and did. My father graduated high school in May of 1950 as the Korean War started in June. He volunteered that Fall for the U.S. Navy and immediately went to San Diego and then to Pearl Harbor/Hickam Airfield where he did his basic training. Upon completion of basic, he was assigned to the USS Gunston Hall, LSD-5, a landing ship dock.
During the beginning of basic training, he called his girlfriend and future wife and said I want to marry you before I go to Korea. So find a way and get to Hawaii. It was 1950 and that's not nearly as easy as today. Within a couple of days she took the train from Omaha Nebraska to San Francisco, where her mother and father paid (a lot) to get her on a PanAm clipper airplane. They were married shortly thereafter in a small chapel on Oahu.
My father's ship left for Japan where the war's reinforcement and resupply was staged from. He spent 4 years going back and forth between Pusan, Inchon, and the ports of Fukuoka, Sasebo, Nagasaki, Tokyo, etc. In talking to my dad just a year or so ago, and I was asking him questions about his favorite subject, he mentioned two Korean towns that I was unfamiliar with, Wonsan and Hungnam. So, as I sat there with him using his IPad, I pulled up a map and said, dad those towns/ports are in North Korea. He nonchalantly said yea they are, we spent several days there both in the port and onshore. Goes on to explain this was after we had taken Inchon/Seoul and were pushing north.
He was married to my mother for 73 years. That's hard for me to fathom how long that is. They ended up looking like each other lol.
So upon getting out of the service, they had to decide whether to go back to Iowa, or settle some place else. They had no idea, where, but my dad's older sister had married a guy from Beaumont Texas. He was Class of '49 and suggested to my dad that they come to Texas and go to Texas A&M. So they did. My dad was not in the Corps as he'd already served. He graduated in 1959, has his 3rd child, my brother in Bryan (his name is Kyle) and eventually they had me in Amarillo after graduation and getting a job in the oil & gas world in the Panhandle.
My dad bled maroon as did my mom. He made sure the 4 of us went to games at Kyle. We got to know the Horse Shoe quite well, Lupo's bookstore, G. Rollie White, etc. My mom worked at the vet school with Dr. Flowers while my dad got through school.
Last night, his family gathered at the inpatient hospice house in Ft. Worth where he was taken to from the hospital yesterday afternoon and talked to him. He wasn't conscious but would moan/grunt, try to open his eyes, etc. He could hear you though as hearing is the last thing to go. My oldest son pulled up the game with BG on his phone and we made sure to tell him the final score. He squeezed my hand when he heard we'd won. He was a great dad. One of those that always volunteered to coach or help out. He was a great husband as well and simply couldn't fathom being without his wife and our mom. These two dyed in the wool Aggies passed 20 weeks apart at the ages of 92 and 93. They're together now, as they should be.
Thanks for the well wishes last night. Have great Sundays and you'll see me on here shortly.
Gig'Em Aggies
