Dr. H. O. Malone, in memoriamIn early 2006, H. O. Malone convened a gathering that led to the formation of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park. He served as CFMNP's first president until he died suddenly on Monday, October 27, 2008 -- yet another of countless days marked by the calmly passionate resolve of his work for the future of post-Army Fort Monroe.The circumstances of our loss -- and Fort Monroe's loss, and the loss of all who treasure Fort Monroe -- are reported in the brief Virginian-Pilot article that appearsbelow.
We are grateful that Governor Timothy M. Kaine sent a kind letter of condolence to Mrs. Monika Malone and her family. We hope that we may be forgiven for posting a copy of this private communication. We post it with some hesitation, but we believe that H. O. would approve our doing so, and would see a necessity for it.We are grateful as well that Dr. Charles R. Smith of Hampton Baptist Church has shared the text of the eulogy that he delivered at the memorial service. We recommend this eulogy to all who knew H. O. but who may not have known the enormous breadth and depth of the life that he lived.Following the news article just below, we also offer a resolution in memoriam, a poem by one of us, and a brief tribute that was spoken by one of us at the memorial service.At the time of the memorial service, H. O.'s family asked that in lieu of flowers, memorials take the form of tax-deductible donations to the Fort Monroe National Park Foundation, another organization that was privileged to have Dr. Malone as its president:
Fort Monroe National Park Foundation
P.O. 097
Fort Monroe
VA 23651- - - - - - - - - - - -Fort Monroe advocate dies while waiting to cast ballotKate Wiltrout, Virginian-PilotThe leader of a citizens group seeking to turn Fort Monroe into a national park died Monday of an apparent heart attack.
Henry O. Malone, 74, helped found Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park in 2006, and was its president.
Known to many as "H.O.," Malone was a dogged, deep-voiced advocate for the historic post. He spent 14 years there as chief historian of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command.
In 2005, the government said it would close the base. Concerned about development on the 570-acre waterfront property, Malone buttonholed politicians. He wrote letters, organized meetings and united a diverse group of people.
"H.O. was the spark plug that brought us together, and he had total dedication to the best interests of the future of Fort Monroe," said Louis Guy, president of the Norfolk Historical Society and secretary of the citizens group.
Mark Perreault, a board member, said Malone was undeterred by setbacks: "He just dusted himself off, got up and kept going straight ahead. He was an inspiration to us all."
A longtime Hampton resident, Malone was an Air Force pilot before earning a doctorate in history.
Friends said Malone collapsed while in line to cast an absentee ballot at the Hampton registrar's office. They said he had planned to spend Election Day outside polling places, getting signatures on a Fort Monroe petition.
" He died, in a way, working to preserve Fort Monroe," said Charles H. Cureton, who worked for Malone at Training and Doctrine Command.
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Resolution in memoriamWhereas Dr. H.O. Malone, Jr., was the first to see the necessity of creating an organization to promote a constructive alternative vision of Fort Monroe, and
Whereas he persuaded others to join him in this important endeavor, and
Whereas as president of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park and of Fort Monroe National Park Foundation, he worked tirelessly on behalf of this vision, and
Whereas he was a friend and an inspiration to his fellow board members, who will remember his selfless dedication as they continue their efforts to save Fort Monroe for all Americans,
Be it resolved that the boards of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park and Fort Monroe National Park Foundation express their deep gratitude to Dr. Malone for his incalculable contribution to their cause.- - - - - - - - - - - -To H. O. Malone –
A Man with Vision and Passion
Yes, there are those with vision
And a passion then to build
A bridge from proud tradition
To a dream to be fulfilled.
They give all they’ve been blessed with
For a cause that must be won.
Generations know the gift
Of the many things they’ve done.
We may not recognize them
Until they have left the scene,
The good they leave behind them
Overlooked in life’s routine.
A man’s not fully measured
‘Til the counting of his days.
We know now that we treasured
Your soft-spoken, humble ways.
The causes that you lived for
Will live on in each of us.
Soldiers and the governor
Know of your assertiveness.
We friends are now much sadder
As we say goodbye today.
The world will be much better
Because you have come this way.
Adrian H. Whitcomb Jr.
Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park
© 2008 Adrian H. Whitcomb Jr.- - - - - - - - - - - -Tribute offered in memory of Dr. H. O. Malone
At the memorial service, October 31, 2008
It’s my privilege to represent Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park. But I didn’t first know H. O. Malone because of Fort Monroe. I first knew him because of another underestimated national treasure, Langley Field.
H. O. and I focused on different dimensions of Langley’s past, but just as we both have hoped to see better appreciation of the national historical significance of Fort Monroe, we both called for better understanding of the national historical significance of events at Langley in the 1930s.
That’s why we communicated with each other even before Fort Monroe’s civic challenges crystallized for citizens and leaders in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
I’m grateful for this chance to report to you, just very briefly, what H. O.’s historical thinking about events at Langley 70 years ago suggests to me today. I think it says a lot about H. O. and Fort Monroe, and therefore a lot about H. O. himself.
By early 2006, Fort Monroe’s civic challenges were clear. It was clear that the commonwealth’s political and journalistic and business leaders were simply accepting the official framing of the post-Army Fort Monroe question. It was clear that even cultural and environmental leaders, and even historical preservation leaders, were accepting what H. O. and many others considered a fundamentally mistaken framing of the question.
But here’s the thing: H. O. Malone was the only critic of that mistaken framing who saw what to do about it.
He didn’t simply criticize the mistaken framing. Instead, he convened some fellow citizens and persuaded them of something important: that the way to engage the challenges was first to organize -- and then systematically to promote a constructive alternative vision for Fort Monroe’s future.
In retrospect I think it was deeply in H. O.’s nature to do this. He was a historian and therefore a thinker, but he was also experienced in the ways of large organizations, and further, he was a jet fighter pilot. As an aviator -- besides being a thinker and an organizer -- he was naturally a man of action.
Man of action, thinker, organizer. These bring me back not just to Fort Monroe, but to Langley Field.
After H. O. retired as one of the Army’s senior historians, he focused on lots of things. One focus was victory in the air in World War II and the origins of the modern Air Force. He traced all of that to an Army Air Corps officer at Langley in the 1930s: Frank Andrews, after whom Andrews Air Force base is named.
Like H. O., General Andrews was a man of action and a thinker and an organizer. And like H. O., he died unexpectedly. It was at a crucial moment in 1943, when the general could have continued to contribute vitally as a key leader of a noble effort.I ask you to consider something H. O. wrote about General Andrews, and to consider how it applies as well to H. O. himself. In a journal of the Air Force Association, H. O. wrote: "The significance of [General Andrews'] career does not revolve around the circumstances of his death or what ‘might have been’ had he lived longer. It rests instead on the unique role he actually played during his military service. He was responsible for orchestrating sweeping changes to the prewar Army Air Corps. He prepared the way for the wartime Army Air Forces and postwar US Air Force."With your permission, I’ll close by rewriting those thoughts from H. O. about General Andrews. I’ll close by rewriting them in a way that applies to their author instead: "The significance of Dr. H. O. Malone’s two and a half years engaging the civic challenges of post-Army Fort Monroe does not revolve around the circumstances of his death or what ‘might have been’ had he lived longer. It rests instead on the unique role he actually played during his service to the cause of Fort Monroe’s future. He was responsible for orchestrating sweeping changes to the very framing of the Fort Monroe question. He prepared the way for a Fort Monroe that will last a thousand years."
Steven T. CorneliussenCitizens for a Fort Monroe National Park(Home)
