West Point’s oldest graduate
Lt. Gen. William J. Ely helped build a naval base that was key in the country’s World War II victory in the Pacific, and later became West Point’s oldest living graduate.
Ely died Tuesday at Abbey Delray South, an assisted-living facility, following a brief hospitalization, according to West Point officials and a friend. He was 105.
Delray Mayor Cary Glickstein said he visited the retired three-star general at Delray Medical Center last week and again earlier this week. Thursday he recalled years of conversations with Ely that touched on topics from marital happiness to how technological changes were shaping humanity.
“It’s an honor to be the mayor of the city you live in and you meet a lot of interesting people that way,” Glickstein said. “But getting to know him has been one of the highlights of being mayor.
“The depth of his knowledge and the acuity of his mind up until the end was breathtaking,” he added.
A native of Claysville, Pa., a small town in western Pennsylvania, Ely tried twice before being appointed to the U.S. Military Academy, also known as West Point, according to his longtime friend, Dick Cameron, 90, who played many rounds of golf with Ely before Ely gave up the game five years ago.
“Everyone who met Bill liked him,” Cameron said.
The Army Distinguished Service Medal and the Silver Star were some of the awards Ely piled up during his 33-year Army career. His service put him on the engineering unit that built the entrance channel of the Naval Air Station Midway Island. It played a role in decisive World War II victories, such as the Battle of Midway.
Later, he worked for an engineering firm in St. Louis, Mo., and then combined his love of golf and engineering into building a course called “Double Dam,” near where he grew up, Cameron said.
“He worked very hard on it — it’s a very hilly course,” his friend said.
He wrote a memoir “The Oldest Living Graduate” on his iPad and self-published it in 2015, Glickstein said. “We had many conversations about change and man’s capacity to adapt to it,” Glickstein said.
He returned to his alma mater to be in the alumni review in May. He is survived by three children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-greatgrandchildren, Glickstein said.
The Sun Sentinel couldn’t reach them for comment Thursday.
Ely’s wife of 74 years, Helen, predeceased him three years ago.
Glickstein said he is planning on attending his burial at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., in the coming months.
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