Homer Smith and I were at the memorial service for our Fifth Company classmate, Austin Lett, and his wife Lyla at the home of their daughter Heather in Costa Mesa, CA, on 27 June. Randy Orlowski, 12th Company, also came up from Laguna Niguel to provide additional Class of '63 support for Austin's family, which was deeply appreciated. Following the service, we boarded a charter boat to go out and scatter the ashes of Austin and Lyla, along with the ashes of their love letters, at sea. It was an informal event, but deeply moving. Austin and Lyla both died of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) within six weeks of each other -- an incredible coincidence.
Austin was my roommate the last two years at the Academy. To say that he was a strong character would seriously understate the case. Some of the sea stories I was able to write up for his son and daughter, who said he hardly ever talked about the Academy, are almost in the Philo McGiffen class. There was, for example the time he obtained retribution for a fairly minor prank played on him by hiding in the room of the pranksters six pieces of fish, only five of which could be found by the occupants after the room became uninhabitable. Foreshadowing some outstanding later successes in investment banking, Austin revealed the location of the last odiferous portion in return for an agreement to refrain from counter-retribution. On another occasion, a couple of fellows in Fifth Co. from '64 gave offense that Austin again thought deserved retribution. We were living on fourth deck of Fifth Wing at the time, just before that wing was to be gutted for renovation. The unsuspecting pair lived around the corner. On D-Day, just after taps, Austin, I and two plebes (it should be noted here that the plebes were draftees; I was a volunteer, for reasons I still cannot fathom) went up into the attic, navigated to the target, broke into the (occupied) room through the overhead using fire axes, dumped two pillows worth of feathers into the opening just created, then doused the mess with the contents of a fire extinguisher. Somehow, we escaped any consequences.
The story that I think best captures the spirit of my roomie in those years, however, concerns his interview with Admiral Rickover for admission to the nuclear power program. In one of the preliminary interviews with a captain, Austin had revealed that in his spare time he liked to keep up with world events -- he was as intellectually aggressive as anyone in the class, I think. In due course, Austin found himself one-on-one with The Great Intimidator himself. Naturally enough, Rickover seized on the misuse of potential study time to try to peel up a corner and rip Austin's hide off. He went so far as to accuse Austin of committing an Honor Offense by said misuse of time. He didn't know who he was dealing with; trying to intimidate Austin Lett was a fool's errand. All Rickover did was to amuse Austin (he laughed as he told me the story that evening) and convince him that Navy Line was his future. Rickover actually called the Supe (Uncle Charlie) about it. He told Austin about the call, and they both laughed.
Navy line was a good choice. In July 1967, Lt. A.S. Lett became the first member of the Class of 63 to take command of a ship, the HICKMAN COUNTY (LST-825), a WW II vessel. Austin was awarded a Bronze Star for his service as C.O. of the ship in and around Vietnam.
After sea duty, Austin was on staff at the NROTC unit at the University of Michigan. There he got his MBA, and met and married Lyla Strauch. He also managed from a standing start on January 1, 1971, to overcome years of inactivity by training for and completing the Boston Marathon in 3:26. Classmates will not be surprised that he found a way to enter the race without having previously run a qualifying marathon; I can empathize with the University of Michigan varsity track coach who was somehow convinced to obtain an exemption for the "college athlete." Pure Austin.
Austin left the Navy in 1971 and entered business as a financial guy, establishing a strong record of success as CFO with two big companies in the Midwest, and eventually becoming a partner in Bollinger, Wells, Lett & Co., a boutique investment bank in New York. The stories told at his memorial service by those who served with him in the finance world rival the ones Homer and I told about his Academy and Navy days. Unfortunately, alcohol fueled some of those civilian adventures, and Austin very nearly crashed and burned. Fortunately for him, his wife and good friends intervened to save him. Austin resurrected himself, and went on to be instrumental in saving many others through AA. One person at the service spoke movingly of how Austin had saved his life.
Austin's kids, Heather and Travis, are young adults any of us would be proud to call our own. Heather is a Ph.D. clinical psychologist, mother, and former model. Travis is chef and co-owner of Gjelina, a restaurant in Venice, CA, which has become 'hot.' He has been written up in Vogue, and selected by the James Beard Foundation as a Rising Star Chef of the Year for 2009. Perhaps Austin's major contribution to their success, other than some genes for looks and smarts, was to choose as his wife and their mother a woman who was, by all accounts, truly outstanding. Not only as a wife and mother, but also as an elementary school teacher and as a friend, Lyla was one of those paragons of devotion and dedication who make her small part of the world a much better place. I'm sorry I never got to know her.
