Thomas Blythe Gentry

I want to celebrate the life of one of my old English professors.

His name was Thomas Blythe Gentry, Class of 1944.  He taught in the department of English at Virginia Military Institute for over fifty years and I adored him.

I adored him because he made Milton fun.  (He once gifted me a book of Paradise Lost.  I didn't appreciate it at the time.  But now I do.  I still have the book.)

I adored him because he cried when he read Shakespeare's sonnets aloud. (While other cadets snickered, I was jealous of his passion.  I remember thinking: "I wish I was that passionate about anything...")

I adored him because he used to tell stories about listening to live radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday afternoons in the Barracks when he was a cadet.  In those days the opera broadcasts were played over the loud speakers.

I adored him because he took our music society - the Timmins Music Society - to New York City every spring for a four-day weekend.  The trip included an opera at the Met and a concert by the New York Philharmonic.  He led these cultural experiences for over 40 years and this trip became one of the most formative experiences for VMI cadets.

I adored him because he wrote one of my recommendations to graduate school.  Though I requested the letter many years after I left VMI, he remembered me.  In fact, he remembered more about my cadetship than I did.  The last time I spoke to him I could tell that he still cared about me.

Colonel Gentry, rest in peace.

You made a difference in my life.

Sorry I didn't tell you these things while you were alive.