He was a man of many talents and trades. He was known as the town historian, a movie buff, a gregarious party-goer, but most importantly: a dedicated family man.
Memorials
He didn’t care for people who played bridge and he thought sweetened iced tea was the bane of Southern society. For Austin, life was best lived devotedly, enthusiastically, and seriously
One of the most important cultural figures of the 20th Century
First American soldier killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan. “America’s going to war over this. And they’re not going without me.”
A reservist who died just one month after arriving in Iraq was described as “young woman who cared for the downtrodden.”
Enlisting shortly after Pearl Harbor, he demonstrated the same fine qualities in the Naval Air Force that he had shown at Princeton.
He was a World War II Veteran and served in the U.S. Navy in New Orleans, LA. He served in the Battle of Leyte in the Pacific Theater where he was injured and later honorably discharged.
A heroic Vietnam vet, Bob Nylen was never intimidated by people with money or egos. He was a hard-charging businessman whose adventurous life was cut short by cancer.
Killed in West Germany in the last weeks of WWII, he got the Silver Star for heroism, and our family and country lost a splendid person.
My mother has been dead for fourteen years, but she pipes up loud and clear to say that she dislikes the way I describe her. She insists that she was a much better woman and mother than I say she was … she’s probably right.