My grandfather lead an interesting 90 year life. He lived through 17 presidents and 35 years in the Navy (which included flying 26 types of airplanes with almost 4600 flight hours). He worked another 16 years for the city of Jacksonville (through one form or another) and enjoyed almost 25 years in retirement. He was the father of 4 sons and one daughter and had 6 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren.
My granddad loved to tell stories. Stories of when he was a boy, when he was in the Navy, his career with Jacksonville but most of all how good his golf game was. I have heard most of his stories so many times that I often tuned them out. Something I feel kinda of guilty about now a days. But golf…. thats something we all enjoyed. I dont think there was a visit in my adult life that we didnt play golf. Heck, even as a kid I used to drive the cart and watch him play. My granddad had a pretty good game in his younger years but as you can imagine old age increased his scored and handicap. Even then, the man hit everything straight as an arrow… just not as far. My cousin Scott and I used to tease him about how boring it must be to hit the ball just about where you want every time. If you played competitively with him, you had to watch the putting because he loved to give himself “the benefit of the doubt”. My dad and I would chuckle about his interpretation of the rules. However, in the end it was golf that was his demise. On June 11, 2007 Walter Whitaker Honour had a major heart attack on the green of his home course in Newland, NC. The unfortunate event made worse by the fact that Newland is in the middle of no where. The closest trauma hospital was by helicopter in Johnson City, TN. Forest fires were fairly bad that particular year so the travel was slow. After surgery and a stent, granddad never returned to golf. In fact, his health never was 100% after that. His health slowly declined to his passing October 31, 2010.
Our family had a “celebration” service back in November to remember his life. My dad went over his life’s “timeline” and told funny and proud stories of his dad. My Uncles did the same. I listened to bunk mates from the Naval Academy (class of 1944) tell stories I never heard and coworkers from his 2nd career told their fond memories. Scattered around the room were mementos of his life… plaques, medals, certificates, airplane models and lots of photos. It was pretty humbling how many people came. Granddad’s final funeral service would be at Arlington National Cemetery were he would be buried with full military honors, that took place back in April.
My wife, son and I traveled to DC to attend the memorial service. I have to admit that I was taken aback by how much honor, pride and patriotism was displayed that day by both the men and women of the old guard and the tourists that were also there. The ceremony in the chapel was short and sweet. Afterwards, just outside the chapel my granddad’s ashes were placed in the horse drawn caisson. Since his branch of service was Navy, all the service personnel performing his service were Navy. A nice touch. The band began their parade song and march, followed by the escort troops and the horse drawn caisson. My dad, my 2 Uncles, my granddad’s sister in law and I all walked behind the caisson for the 1.5 mile trip to the gravesite. During our march, we encountered tons of tourists that stopped what they were doing and stood still while we passed. Children, teenagers, parents and retirees all stood in awe of what was happening in front of them. The coolest part was when we passed a group of Boy Scouts and they stopped and gave the three finger salute. My dad fell back from the formation, turned and faced the group and saluted back. The act was so simple in nature but was so symbolic that it really took my breath away. At the end of the trek, granddad’s ashes were taken out of the caisson and placed at the ceremonial grave site. The service included the gun salute, bugler playing “Taps”, flag folding and the presenting of the flag to family. It all went so fast, but was so surreal to experience.
As a grandson, I wanted to soak it all in and feel the emotion, but I was concerned about how I would handle it all emotionally. I took my camera but as many of you that read this blog know, I wanted to be a part of the ceremony and not be a “photographer”. However, as the day started I quickly fell into that role anyway. In the end, I was ok with my decision. Anyway, this blog post and working the photos were a major part of me processing the entire event.
Below is the Obituary that the family created so I wanted to share that and the photos at the end of this post. Thank you for reading…
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Captain Walter Whitaker Honour USN (retired)
Captain Walter W Honour made his final takeoff October 31, 2010. Born into the “greatest generation” August 4, 1920 in Orange NJ, son of Stanley and Carla Honour, he attended public schools in Waterford, NY and graduated from East Orange HS in 1937.
Walt studied engineering at Newark College of Engineering and enlisted in the Unites States Marine Corps Reserve, rising to corporal before accepting an appointment to the US Naval Academy in 1940 where he played varsity soccer and basketball. Ensign Honour graduated after three year war curriculum as part of class of 1944 with a BS in Engineering. He married Elaine Gibson in Newark the next day. Together they had five children, Walt Jr, Craig, Eric, Stephen and Melanie.
After a short tour as a navy flight observer, he joined USS Intrepid (CV 11) bound for the pacific war as Assistant Navigator and survived many combat engagements in the Central and Western Pacific. During battle for Truk, the ship suffered a direct hit by an enemy aerial torpedo. Captain Honour was designated a naval aviator on V-J day and rose rapidly through various squadron and station tours in Guam, Atlantic City, Memphis, Patuxent, and Purdue University. After flying C-118’s across the Pacific for two years, he was promoted to Commander and graduated from Army Command and General Staff College in 1959. He joined Patrol Squadron VP-18 flying P2V’s and rose to be Commanding Officer. He was rewarded with a second command as the Commanding officer of VP30 where he flew P5M seaplanes, P2V’s and introduced the P3 to the fleet. He followed with Executive Officer tour on USS Boxer and then the pentagon navy staff.
Captain Honour next commanded the ship USS Pawcatuk before becoming the Commodore Fleet Air Wing 11 at NAS Jacksonville. He headed back to pentagon where he earned dual Master degrees at George Washington University. He retired from a distinguished career after 35 years.
Captain Honour then had a successful second career in Duval County government as Director of Bio-environmental Sciences where he was influential in stopping sewage into the St Johns and reducing pulp mill odors. In retirement he consulted, travelled, built three houses, wrote books and played a lot of golf. He married Bobbie Sue Blanchard Miller in 1998.
He is survived by his second wife Bobbie Sue Honour, sons Craig Honour, Eric Honour, and Stephen Honour, 7 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.
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Hope you enjoyed….
Chris Honour |
Portraits |
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
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