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2008 SESSION


HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 58
Celebrating the life of Commander William Boyle Bagbey.

 

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, January 11, 2008
Agreed to by the Senate, January 17, 2008

 

WHEREAS, Commander William Boyle Bagbey, United States Navy Reserve, Retired, an outstanding officer and respected citizen of Roanoke, died on April 14, 2007; and

WHEREAS, born in Kentucky in 1916, William Bagbey graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1938, settled in Roanoke to work for The Roanoke World-News as a reporter, and completed the V-7 program of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps in 1942; and

WHEREAS, Ensign Bagbey was first assigned in the Atlantic on the USS Osmond Ingram and then transferred in 1943 to the USS Bogue (CVE-9), an aircraft carrier attached to a highly decorated submarine hunter-killer group that received a Presidential Unit Citation for damaging two and sinking eight German submarines; and

WHEREAS, William Bagbey bravely participated in the invasion of the Philippines in the battle of Surigao Straits aboard the USS Killen, which was credited with sinking the Imperial Japanese Navy's formidable battleship Yamashiro; and

WHEREAS, as his ship's damage control officer, William Bagbey was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V" for his heroic action on November 1, 1944, as the Killen was severely damaged by enemy air attack in the Leyte Gulf; and

WHEREAS, after valuable service during the occupation of Japan, William Bagbey returned home to work for The Roanoke World-News, but by 1951, he was recalled to serve in the Korean War as the executive officer of the USS Dortch; and

WHEREAS, William Bagbey served on the staff of the Commander Operational Development Force in Norfolk, as well as in Europe as the officer-in-charge of the Navy Field Training Group, which assisted in the rebuilding of the navy of the Federal Republic of Germany; and

WHEREAS, William Bagbey commanded the USS Keppler from 1958 to 1960; served on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic during the Cuban missile crisis; and finished his distinguished military career with tours as chief staff officer of Destroyer Group TWO in Newport, Rhode Island, and warfare officer for the Commander Operational Test and Evaluation Force in Norfolk; and

WHEREAS, after 21 years of honorable service to his country, Commander Bagbey retired from the United States Navy Reserve on July 1, 1967; and

WHEREAS, William Bagbey joined Thomas Rutherfoord, Inc., where he enjoyed a successful career first in Norfolk and then in Roanoke, retiring as the company's vice president in 1982; and

WHEREAS, after returning to Roanoke in 1969, William Bagbey served his community in numerous ways, including as the chairman of the Roanoke Valley Fine Arts Council and as the president of the Independent Insurance Agents Association of Roanoke Valley, the Roanoke Valley Historical Society, the Southwestern Virginia Branch of the English-Speaking Union of the United States, the Roanoke Round Table, and the Fincastle Resolutions Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution; and

WHEREAS, as the first chairman of The National D-Day Memorial Foundation and a tireless member of its board of directors for many years, Commander Bagbey's great passion was to properly honor all of the brave soldiers who landed on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, to free Europe from the grip of Nazi tyranny; and

WHEREAS, William Bagbey will be fondly remembered for his many talents and generous works and will be greatly missed by his devoted wife and family, his numerous friends, and his fellow service men and women; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly mourn the passing of a fine naval officer and outstanding Virginian, Commander William Boyle Bagbey; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the family of Commander William Boyle Bagbey as an expression of the General Assembly’s respect for his memory.