25 April 1921  20 February 2004
Died in Peoria, Arizona
Interment: West Point Cemetery, West Point, New York

THOMAS EVERETT GRIESS was born in Sutton, Nebraska, to Albert and Gela Griess. Raised in Kearney, Nebraska, Tom learned the virtue of duty at a young age, delivering newspapers and helping his parents manage a small hotel. He was an accomplished euphonium and tennis player in high school, and his love of music and sports flourished throughout his life.

After one year at Nebraska State Teachers College, Tom entered West Point in 1939. He worked hard, raised his academic class standing each year, devoted four years to the cadet orchestra, and served as a lieutenant in his company and a member of the honor committee in his First Class year. He also made plenty of friends, many of those friendships lasting a lifetime.

While on leave as a cadet, Tom traveled with classmate Mac Wardrop to Michigan so Mac could visit his family and Tom could see his brother Gerald. As fate would have it, Mac's romantic interest in Peg Bush was not reciprocated, but sparks flew when Tom was introduced to Peg's sister, Betty, a college beauty queen and singer of local renown. Love blossomed, and three days after graduation, Tom and Betty married in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.

Commissioned in the Corps of Engineers, Tom became a platoon leader and, later, company commander in the 321st Engineer Combat Battalion in the 96th Infantry Division. After training on the West Coast, the division participated in the landing and subsequent fighting on Leyte during MacArthur's return to the Philippines and then joined the assault on Okinawa. When the fighting finally subsided and the Japanese had been subdued on Okinawa, Tom received two battle stars. The division returned to the Philippines to prepare for the invasion of Japan, a daunting event that Tom was eternally grateful did not occur.

After WWII, Tom enjoyed engineering assignments in the Pacific (serving again in the Philippines and Okinawa and helping reconstruction efforts), obtained a masters in civil engineering at the University of Illinois, and taught engineering ROTC at the University of California-Berkeley. Tom also served a tour in Korea as XO and then was commander of the llth Engineer Combat Battalion. During these years, children Ann and Tom, Jr., were born.

In 1957, Tom returned to West Point for a three-year assignment teaching military history. During this tour, Tom received recognition as an author of the two-volume West Point Atlas of American Wars. This experience laid the foundation for an important transition in Tom's military career, but first he and his family enjoyed a memorable interlude in Europe.

Tom spent two years in southern France commanding the 83rd Engineer Construction Battalion (Reinforced) and later the 1st Engineer Construction Group. The men under Tom's command worked diligently on projects reaching from near the Spanish border to slightly north of Paris. Along with the satisfaction of addressing the needs of American troops, Tom was proud of being named an honorary citizen of St. Jean d'Angley (for services rendered) and of his many friendships with French citizens. He then served one year on the staff of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Paris, monitoring NATO construction projects. Tom and his family used vacation time to immerse themselves in the history and culture of western Europe, taking particular pleasure in visiting the great cathedrals and museums of the region.

As Tom was preparing to attend the National War College, the Superintendent of West Point offered him a permanent professorship at the Academy. Reluctant to give up service in the field but remembering his passion for teaching and scholarship and devotion to the Academy, he accepted. Tom settled his family at West Point, left the children in Betty's capable hands, and departed for Durham, NC, to spend several years earning his doctorate of philosophy in military history at Duke University. Upon his return to West Point, Tom became a permanent professor and, in 1969, assumed duties as the first head of the newly formed history department.

The remaining years of active duty were devoted to organizing and overseeing the department and its curriculum, developing texts, and teaching classes in military theory and leadership. In addition, Tom served on numerous committees, edited or wrote several published military history works, and found time to present military history programs on network television. The current head of the history department, COL Bob Doughty, remembers being impressed from the beginning by Tom's intellect, professionalism, and deep interest in history. Doughty credits Tom with establishing a strong foundation that continues to shape the history department. In recognition of his long service to the Academy, Tom was awarded the rank of brigadier general upon retirement in 1981.

Retirement took Tom and Betty to Sun City, AZ. Accustomed to an active life, Tom plunged into volunteer work for his church and country club while also enjoying grandchildren, trips with Betty around the country and abroad, tennis and golf and research and writing on military history topics, with a particular focus on GEN Jacob Devers '09. His extensive research files and writings about Devers are being donated to the USMA library with the intent that an interested young military historian will complete the biography.

Tom succumbed to a blood disorder, his intellectual curiosity intact to the end. His good friend and classmate, LTG Frank Camm, remembered: "He was such a special person in our lives for so many years... Tom had a bedrock set of values that we respected highly and a sense of self that we greatly admired."

Betty, their two children, and five grandchildren survive Tom. His ashes are inurned in the West Point Cemetery, a fitting final destination for a soldier-scholar who loved and served the Academy for so many years and who always sought to exemplify the credo "Duty, Honor, Country."  (source: Class of January 1943, United States Military Academy, memorial articles.

Originally published in TAPS, January/February 2005)

Submitted by:   Ida Maack Recu

Thomas E. Griess

82, passed away on Friday, February 20, 2004, at The Forum at Desert Harbor in Peoria, Arizona.

Tom was born in Sutton, Nebraska and raised in Kearney, Nebraska before graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in January 1943. He was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers, served in World War II in the Pacific theatre and in the Korean War, and enjoyed duty assignments overseas in the Philippines, Okinawa and France. While earning his Ph.D. in History from Duke University, Tom served as Professor of Military Art and Engineering from 1963 to 1968 at West Point. He then in 1969 became the head of the newly formed Department of History at West Point, a position he held until his retirement as a Brigadier General in 1981 from the United States Army.Tom and his wife, Elizabeth, retired to Sun City, Arizona, in 1981.

Tom was an active member of All Saints of the Desert Episcopal Church, serving as an acolyte and in the Vestry and also leading or serving on various church committees. He and his wife also were long time members of Palmbrook Country Club, with Tom serving a term as President. During these retirement years, they enjoyed travel overseas and to see family and friends, golf, their Siamese cats, and researching genealogy and topics in military history. He had been working on a biography of General Jacob L. Devers, Commander of the 6th Army Group during World War II, at his death.

Tom is survived by Elizabeth, his wife of 61 years, who resides at The Forum at Desert Harbor in Peoria, Arizona; his brother, Gerald Griess, of Sun City, Arizona; his daughter, Ann Adams, of Tucson, Arizona; his son, Thomas Griess, Jr., of Austin, Texas; and five grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 P.M. on Thursday, February 26, 2004 at the All Saints of the Desert Episcopal Church in Sun City, Arizona. Burial will be at the United States Military Academy cemetery at West Point at a later date.In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  His family thanks everyone, including the staffs at Boswell Hospital in Sun City and The Forum at Desert Harbor in Peoria along with family, relatives and dear friends, for his or her unwavering support during Tom's final illness.

Daily News-Sun (Sun City, Arizona) February 26, 2004

Submitted by:   Ida Maack Recu