Except as noted, all images copyrighted by and should be attributed to E B Hawley.
I had become many eons ago a traveling literary gnome, inquisitive about places I had and had not visited,
walking the same paths of peoples from the past, through places once grand and still grand,
photographing images that now show me the places about which I still dream . . .

Saturday, October 31, 2015

G'bye, Dave, and Thank You


David R. Eby, Colonel U.S.A.F. Retired, passed away on Wednesday, October 28, 2015 in Wichita Falls.
Funeral services will be held 1 p.m. Friday, November 6, 2015 at the Hampton Vaughan Funeral Home Chapel. Burial will follow at Crestview Memorial Park. Visitation will be from 6-8 p.m. Thursday evening at Hampton Vaughan Funeral Home.
Eby was born in Lancaster, PA on August 22, 1930 to Ralph W. Eby, Sr. and Caroline S. Eby. He lived on a farm in Paradise, PA until he enlisted in the Air Force in 1951. He graduated from Paradise High School and attended Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. He was an Air Force Aviation Cadet, completed pilot training and was commissioned in March 1953. He married Patricia Jane Smith from Lancaster in Big Spring, TX on March 21, 1953. During his career, he was stationed in Wisconsin, Alaska, South Carolina, England, Thailand, Okinawa and Texas. Eby flew the EB-66 in the South Asia conflict in 1968 and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Air Medal with five Oak Leaf Clusters. At the time of his Air Force retirement in 1977, he was the Deputy Base Commander at Sheppard A.F.B. Subsequently, he was employed as an agriculture pilot for 20 years by Midwest Aero Service and Flying "V" Air Service. Eby was a part-time employee at Air Tractor working as a test demonstration and instructor pilot from 1979-1997. He was a lifetime member of the Experimental Aircraft Association and an EAA volunteer FAA Designation Airworthiness Representative. He issued 113 airworthiness certificates for experimental aircraft. In 2005, he received the Federal Aviation Administration Wright Brothers "Master Pilot" Award for his contributions to aviation safety. His hobby was building home built airplanes and restoring factory built airplanes, and he assisted other owners in the restoration of their airplanes. A member of the Wichita Fall Radio Control Club, he built and flew radio controlled aircraft from 1958 to 2008, winning a first place trophy for aerobatics at the 1965 National Model Aircraft Contest. Survivors include his wife Patricia of 62 years, a daughter, Jane of Wichita, Kansas, a son Richard of Dallas, Texas and six grandchildren. If desired, memorial contributions may be made to Grace Church or Hospice of Wichita Falls. Online condolences can be made at www.hamptonvaughancrestview.com

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Let Lovely Turn of Phrase Begin

JMHawley Gave Me a Kiss to Build a Dream On

Listen, will you? I think that . . . literature, poetry, music and love make the world go round . . . while mathematics explains things; I fill my life with them, then go walking in snowy woods.
Let us go then, you and I
like two etherized patients floating
through life, together feeling prufrockian.
DDB Jr. makes my world go 'round; during his absence, Pachelbel fills it up.
One summer I sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, then through the Gulf of Finland to reach Saint Petersburg; I pursued Joseph Brodsky in its alley ways. I dream of making that two summers.
I read “Biking to Electra;” found my way in a Jaguar car, and glanced at the flashing steel grasshoppers at sunset. I’ll follow K.O.P.’s footsteps after he followed N.Scott Momaday’s; find warmth and inspiration on a rainy mountain.
Throw chinese coins for the I Ching.
Save the whales, the spotted owl, the woman in toil.
Cast a fly for trout; my memories of fly fishing under the sunny blue Colorado sky remain; I yearn to build more . . . with more trophy Browns.
Listen for the swan’s calls on the Baltic Sea. Feel KKII's joy, his arms spread wide in Yazilikaya.
Good night, Jimmy Durante, where ever you are.