[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 10 (Wednesday, January 21, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E92]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            HONORING COLONEL DAVID ARTHUR LERPS, USMC (RET)

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 21, 2015

  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Colonel David Arthur 
Lerps, USMC (RET), who died on October 21, 2014 after a long and 
valiant struggle with Parkinson's disease, and his career of service to 
our nation.
  Born in Chicago, Illinois on June 28, 1931, he spent his early years 
in Eastchester, New York and was an honors graduate of Duke University 
where he was Commandant of the Naval Battalion and participated in 
every sport, winning distinction as quarterback of the 1954 Blue Demons 
Football Team. His flight training at NAS Pensacola prepared him for 
many years in the Marine Air Wing. During his 30-year military career, 
he served three tours in Japan and flew 312 missions in Vietnam in 
1968, where he was awarded 23 Air Medals and nominated for a 
Distinguished Flying Cross for valor in an especially dangerous mission 
to the DMZ.
  He later served in strategic planning at the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 
Washington, DC; was both student and teacher at the Marine Corps 
Command and Staff College; and attended the Industrial College of the 
Armed Forces while gaining his MBA at George Washington University. He 
concluded his active duty as Chief of Staff, LFTC Pacific Naval 
Amphibious Base, Coronado.
  Upon retiring from active duty in 1984, he was appointed Chief of 
Staff at the Academy of the Pacific, a post he held for 18 years. After 
retiring from AOP, he became a student once again, studying Shakespeare 
and music at the University of Hawaii.
  Col. Lerps was a board member of Hawaii Opera Theater and member of 
the Hawaii Wagner Society. He was an ardent ocean canoe paddler, a 
board member of the Lanikai Canoe Club and coordinator of the Duke 
Kahanamoku Long Distance Canoe Race for four years.
  Even with the decline in mobility and speech and the loss of the 
ability to swallow, he never lost his deep love for opera, sports, for 
his family, Catholic faith and Marine Corps. As life-long friend John 
Schwarz wrote, ``Dave never really left the Corps . . . `once a Marine 
always a Marine.' He was `SEMPER Fl,' a Marine to his final breath!''
  Dave is survived by Mary, his wife of 55 years, his children Kathy 
Lerps, Karen Pittman, Robert Lerps, six grandchildren: Vito and Dylan 
Higgins, Ashley Snow, Amber Lerps, Kylie and Kassidy Barker; and a 
sister Ann Falkenberg and brother Kurt Lerps. I learned of Col. Lerps' 
life of service from his brother-in-law and my good friend Father 
Robert Oldershaw.

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