Taking Leave

Gentle Readers, family and friends,

There are two ways to do this, and being me, of course I am not going to chose. I’ll give you both.

I will start with the mystical version, then provide the more staid official one that may, with some modification, make the papers. Let me be clear and make no mistake: there are miracles in this world, small and large, and we just observed one yesterday.

Raven left this world just after noon yesterday. It was not unexpected, but I had just seen him and kissed his forehead last week. I was surprised by the speed of his departure, once he made his mind up to do it, and was managing the notifications and travel arrangements through the afternoon, more stunned than saddened, since you know that when you are in the process it seems quite endless.

Then another phone call came, this one from the nice lady at Potemkin Village. Jackie announced that she had bad news.

Not quite irritated, but a little querulous, I said: “I know, Dad died at noon.”

She stopped, a little perplexed. “That is not it.”

“Oh, crap.”

“Yes, I am sorry. Your Mom is dead.”

I assume Dad- no longer a Raven confined in the failing bonds of flesh- came and got her. He made pretty good time, since it is nine miles over to the Bluffs in Harbor Springs. I do not claim to know how these things work, but Mom joined him sometime after Staff looked in on her at 2:30.

She was OK, and apparently was changing clothes or packing prior to her departure. There was no reported pain or discomfort for either one.

They were together 63 years and a month until Dad was ejected from Potemkin Village due to his wanderings, since Mom could no longer keep tabs on him. He was looking for something, and yesterday, he found it.

They loved each other very much, and they left yesterday on their terms.

I am leaving Arlington in a rental Mercedes- what the hell- for Michigan this morning to pick up my brother at Detroit Metro Airport late in the afternoon for points north. I will bring my folks back here with me with the luggage once we get some stuff cleaned up in The Little Village By the Bay,

This is a world of miracles, ones beyond our ken.

I doubt if the newspaper will publish an obit that reads: “Local Couple Escapes Custody, Spends Eternity Together In Bliss,” so we have to have a version that is a little more conventional. Here it is, though of course it is not anything like the real deal, which leaves me stunned at the power of the human spirit, able to transcend space and time and death itself.

So here you go:

“It is with great sadness that I write to inform you that William Edwin and Betty Foley Reddig passed peacefully from this world in the afternoon of 03 January 2012, not far from their retirement home in Petoskey, MI.

Born August 8, 1923 to James Burr and Rhoda Fischer Reddig, Bill was the youngest of four children, while Betty, born June 15th of 1925, was the oldest of her family, the pride of Hazel and Mike Foley of Bellaire, Ohio.

The Reddigs, originally a merchant family of Shippensburg, PA, had migrated to East Orange, NJ, and eventually to the grand family home at 98 Sagimore Drive in Maplewood, where J.B. Reddig worked for Western Electric as an telephone engineer. “J.B” was recognized as a Telephone Pioneer of America for his pioneering service in the emerging technology, installing the first central phone service in Panama City, Bermuda and Rio de Janero.

Bill’s family was always oriented toward the high technologies of the day. His older brother, James C. Reddig, was an innovative aeronautical engineer (MIT ’27) who later developed sophisticated space-borne camera systems for the Kodak Corporatation. His sister Rhoda was a nurse and the founding Dean of the Univerity of Michigan Nursing School. His sister Barabara married the dynamic Air Corps veteran and engineer Richard Gile.

Betty’s Dad Mike was a star football player on a state championship team, a World War I (and Bonus Army) veteran and career railroad man. Hazel was a great beauty, and a woman of determined and loving disposition.

Betty excelled at everything she did in her long life. Friends commented that she was either the President or Secretary of every organization she joined, which included the League of Women Voters, The Petoskey Historical Society, the Garden Club and many more. She was the first of her family to attend college and completed her baccalaureate degree in three years, a common practice for men in the war years, but highly unusual for women.

Bill and Betty were the last survivors of their generation on both sides of the family.

Bill was commissioned as a Navy Pilot through the V5 Program shortly after the conclusion of World War II, He returned to New Jersey and completed a course in Industrial Design at the Pratt Institute. He was introduced to a vivacious young girl from Ohio through a blind date arranged by his childhood friend Ray Rappaport in 1947. He and Betty were married in 1948 at the Church of the Transfiguration (the Little Church Around the Corner) in Manhattan.

They renewed their vows at the same church in 2008 on the occasion of their 60th anniversary, a gala occasion that will be remembered by the numerous extended family who attended.

Bill and Betty were advised by Bill’s friend Bob Veryzer that there were burgeoning opportunities in the post-war auto industry in Detroit, and they decamped from Manhattan when Bill secured a position as a junior sylist at the Ford Motor Company. He was recruited in the early 1950s to join George Romney’s management team at the upstart American Motors Corporation, where he seved as assistant head of design to the legendary Ed Anderson and later to Dick Teague. Before departing industry to be elected as Michigan’s Governor, Romney and his people shook the foundations of the industry by producing low-cost and fuel-efficient vehicles to compete with the “gas guzzling dinosaurs” of the Big Three car companies.

Betty was no shrinking violet. She devoted primary attention to the development of their three children, common for the times, but as soon as she felt they were old enough, she returned to school to gain her teacher’s certification, and later had a full career as a high school educator at Kenowa Hills High School near Grand Rapids.

Bill flew AD-4J Skyraider attack aircraft for the Navy Reserve at NAS Grosse Isle, resigning his commission in 1956 after the birth of his third child, his daughter Ann. Both he and Betty were active in social affairs, Bill in Toastmasters and Betty in the League of Women Voters and the Michigan Constitution Convention (“Con-Con”) which revised the state’s charter document for the first time in a hundred years.

Bill’s considerable talents were recognized at AMC, and he accepted a promotion to be Head of Design at the appliance subsidiary Kelvinator. His signature accomplishment there was to apply the style of the auto side of the business to what were then plain white appliances. His concept show “The Kelvinator Originals” featured refrigerators styled as fashion statements, integrating an elegant designer touch to custom kitchens. After divestiture of the appliance company, he rose through the management ranks to become Chief Executive Officer of White Consolidated Industries of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Bill and Betty were enthusiastic visitors to Northern Michigan, and they delighted in their vacation retreat at Martin Lake, developed as the first condominium in the state of Michigan. He was an enthusiastic sportsman in summer and winter. He was elected a National Ski Patroller from the Otsego Ski Club in Gaylord, and ambassador emeritus for the Otsego Patrol for the remainder of his life.

He eventually purchased Curtis Wire and relocated to Petoskey, where he was active in his passions for sailing, skiing and golf. He also served his adopted community as a City Councilman, serving the city as Mayor Pro Tem. Active in retirement, Bill was a member of the “70+” ski club at Nubs Nob. Bill and Betty were widely admired for their kindness and courteous manners, and will be much missed by their family and many friends. Bill and Betty are survived by three children, CAPT J.R. Reddig, USN-Ret., of Arlington, VA, attorney Michael S. Reddig of Flagstaff, AZ, arts director Ann C. Reddig of Anchorage AK, and seven grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete as of this writing, but the family anticipates service at the Reddig family cemetery in Shippensburg, PA, and the Foley plot in Bellaire, OH. They request donations in lieu of flowers be made in Betty and Bill’s name to the Alzheimer’s Association National Office 225 N. Michigan Ave., Fl. 17, Chicago, IL 60601″

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