The oldest living West Point graduate passed away four months after returning to the academy to participate in its alumni review, nearly 85 years after he graduated.
Retired Lt. Gen. William Ely, who was the only remaining grad from the Class of 1933, died on Tuesday at his home in Delray Beach, Florida, according to a West Point Association of Graduates spokeswoman.
Ely, who was 105, will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., said Kim McDermott, the association’s director of communications. He will be buried with his wife, Helen, who died in 2014.
Originally from Pennsylvania, Ely was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers after graduating from West Point in 1933. His assignments included civil works construction, military construction and troop duty with an engineer unit.
In a May interview with Army Times, Ely said he started out on the Mississippi River learning how to build bridges and levees, but then his Army career took him out to the Pacific.
“The most important job that I had was at Midway Island from 1938 to 1940, building an entrance channel into the harbor,” Ely said. “It was one of the most difficult bridging jobs the Corps of Engineers ever had. … Here I was, a lieutenant in charge of about 300 or 400 civilians. It set the stage for my later
