It gave Post 44 of The American Legion great pleasure to honor a former Litchfield, Connecticut Veteran — World War Two, United States Navy Fire Controlman Third Class David Taylor Guernsey late of Falmouth, Massachusetts — as our December 2019 "Veteran of the Month."
David T. Guernsey was born on 22 September 1926 in New York City. His parents were Otis L. Guernsey and Margaret Clarkson Henderson.
David’s father, Otis, had a distinguished career in the US Army. In World War One, he served as a Major in command of the Frontline Battalion of 315th Field Artillery in France. In World War Two, Otis held the rank of Brigadier General and had formally been chief of staff of the Fifth Division of the New York Guard.
And so, David began his education attending the Rye Country Day School in Rye, New York and then on to the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut where after graduation, he attended Yale University. World War Two had broken by the time he went off to Taft in 1941, and because of the war, there was a special accelerated program at the school which allowed David to go through Taft in three and a half years, instead of the usual four. Because he was such a patriot, he took up this opportunity and graduated 1 February 1944, so that he could enter Yale for one semester, before enlisting in the United States Navy in September 1944. There was, however, one big impediment for him to overcome before he could be accepted in to the Navy. David wore glasses. He knew that he could not pass the eye exam without glasses. So, like any good patriot, he decided to memorize the eye chart and there by passing the test.
During the war, David was stationed in several locations. For his fire control training he was in Bainbridge, Maryland and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He then moved on to Newport, Rhode Island for Pre-commissioning School. After this training, he served on the USS Wyoming, a training ship and then finally at the Personnel Separation Center in Lido Beach, Long Island, New York. David was released from active duty at the PSC in Lido Beach, in July of 1946.
After his service, he returned to Yale to finish his education and graduated in 1949 as an English major.
David then immediately married his longtime sweetheart Jacqueline Annan Chapman, on 14 June 1949 at St. James Church in New York City. David and Jackie had known each other since they were 10 years old. They met in Edgartown, on Martha’s Vineyard, where their families summered every year.
David worked as an investment banker in New York City specializing in municipal bonds. He started his accomplished banking career in the usual way, at the bottom of the ladder, editing municipal prospectuses. By the time he retired in 1985 from Smith Barney, he had had a leading hand in at least two of the major municipal projects built in this country — the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel in Norfolk, Virginia and the World Trade Center Towers in lower Manhattan.
After raising their four children in Rye, New York, David and Jackie moved to Litchfield, Connecticut in May of 1982. Here they bought Art Webster’s dairy farm south of town and transformed it in to a horse farm — naming it Teaticket. As Jackie pursued her passion for breeding and raising horses, David looked to the community where he was very philanthropic. He became a member of the town’s planning and zoning committee, on which he served for many years. He was also a dedicated member of the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Junior Republic. Just these two community projects alone, which he threw himself into wholeheartedly at the beginning of his retirement years, completely reflect the man that he was: his ethics, his principles, his values, and his passion for family.
But there is even more to this gentleman. During his lifetime, David’s hobby was to build ship models of all different types and sizes. Deep in his soul, he was a man of the sea. He would start out with a chunk of wood having the relative shape of the hull, and then with proper draft drawings of mast and riggings, create a perfect ship model. Other times, he used a rudimentary kit and created vessels he called “spin offs.’ His models were museum quality in detail and execution. His biggest challenge was a very large model of the famous whaling ship the ‘Charles W. Morgan’ — which he started when he was first married and worked on over the course of 50 years, until it was finally finished and safely under glass.
David T. Guernsey died on 26 January 2017 and is buried in Portland, Connecticut alongside his beloved wife Jackie. He is survived by his four children, who are all here in attendance today; also his very proud five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
The corner stone of the Bantam "All Wars Memorial" states "We celebrate their lives not morn their deaths.”
So, by celebrating David’s life here today, each and every one of us are ensuring that although gone, World War Two Navy Fire Controlman Third Class David Taylor Guernsey is not forgotten!