Shorty is no longer with us, but while he was alive he was an undeniable character who loved life and knew how to make the most of it, and even in a bad situation (like WWII) Shorty knew how to find a way to make people smile!

Shorty was a patriotic guy and when his eyesight wasn't good enough to pass the test to enlist in the army, he memorized the eye chart. However once they realized they'd been tricked, his commander decided not to send him home, and gave him jobs like working in the motor pool where he painted (in pink) "The Jersey Bounce" on the vehicle they used to push and pull disabled vehicles around the work yard.

He also worked in the Kitchen, waited tables in the Officers Mess,

drove troops and supply trucks back and forth to the front during the "Battle of the Bulge".

And when the hostilities ended, they decided to take advantage of his photographic skills and his ability to make people smile, so they gave him a Speed Graphic Press camera, and sent him out to roam around France taking "feel good" and reconstruction PR pics to perk up the morale in France during reconstruction.

Sadly those 4x5 images captured with that press camera were property of US Army and I never got to see those images (which I imagine are in an archive somewhere in DC), but he did bring home a box of negatives he captured with his personal 35 mm camera, and those are the negatives scanned and displayed in Shorty's Europe.

Shorty died the year the towers went down, but he left an indelible mark on his community where many of the kitchens he designed and structures he built still stand, and where his years as a small town scout master changed countless lives for the better as he taught hundreds of boys (and their fathers) how to love nature and enjoy life!

We miss you Shorty!