Spirit Plaza Dedication–Introduction of Family Members & Others

Freddie Wong ’69

  • Mikeual Perritt – original design concept
  • Laura Perritt – Provided an obituary from Ancestry.com in a Brazosport newspaper about passing of Donald Coward’s mother, several years earlier. It listed surviving family members, including a sister and 2 nieces.  One niece was living in Brazoria County and worked for the county library system.
  • Reached out to the niece in Brazoria County, Caprice Meador and she confirmed her uncle was Donald Coward. Even though she was a young child at the time, she remembered the day of his passing because it was her birthday.
  • Through her we were able to locate thermal paper copies of the original hand written letter.
  • Brought several copies to CS and left them with the Corps Center. They in turn sent them over to the Association of Former Students where the copies were scanned and cleaned up using Photoshop software.  A copy of the letter was presented to Caprice.
  • Also we learned through Caprice that Donald Coward had a fiancé at the time of his tragic death, Jeannie Earwood, who is also present. Jeannie even attended Silver Taps here on campus after the passing of the 3 young men.
  • We were also able to connect with George Reynold’s family. His sister Mrs. Renee Reynolds Mitchell, niece Mrs. Rhonda Williams and great nieces Randee and Maddee Williams Koeller along with other family members are all here today for this solemn occasion.
  • We were not able to have a member of John Groves’ family present.

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