Travis Earl Short

Profile Updated: January 15, 2010
Class Year: 1954
Spouse/Partner: Rella May (Halford) Short
Residing In: Reliance, TN USA
Children: Travissa, born 1958
Jennifer, born 1960
Jill, born, 961
Travis, born 1964
Timothy, born More…1967
Trent, born 1979
Lucy, born 1982
Occupation: Retired from U.S. Navy - Manufactruing Consultant
Military Service: U.S. Navy  
Yes! Attending Reunion
Comments:

I attended Dunham then Jenkins in grades 1 through 9. My graduating class would have been 1954. My family moved to Baltimore, Md. in 1951, and I joined the Navy in 1952.

After seven years, I was promoted to Chief Petty officer. I then attended Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a Surface Warfare Officer. I retired from the Navy in January 1974 as a Lieutenant Commander., having served in Mine Sweepers, Destroyers and Fast Combat Support Ships. I received my BS degree in Engineering Science from the U.S. Naval Post Graduate School, Monterey CA, in December 1971.

In 1974, I began working in the shipbuilding/ship repair business and was Chief Design Engineer for a Tacoma Washington company before beginning my own business in Pascagoula, Mississippi. I was president of a machinery manufacturing company for four years in West Point, Nebraska from 1993 until 1997. We designed and manufactured underway replenishment systems for the U.S. Navy.

Today, I am semi-retired, working with my son Travis, who operates our small shipyard in Bayou La Batre, Alabama (Horizon Shipbuilding, Inc. - horizonshipbuilding.com). We design and build steel and aluminum small ships and barges (up to 250-Ft. in length) for the offshore industries and the U.S. Government.

I am an author, with one book of short stories, A Lady I Met At Closing Time, available on Amazon.com. A second book of short stories will be published in the Spring of 2010. I also have two full-length novels in progress. All are written under the pen name of JeffreyStone.

I am the father of four daughters and three sons, living in Washington State, Arizona, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama. I return to the Jenkins area each summer during my family reunion in Pound, Virginia, where I was born.

My family and I visit the Coal Museum in Jenkins nearly every summer, and appreciate the rich historical archives of our heritage available to us there. My father was a coal miner and I am a proud coal miner's son.

My two brothers and sisters attended schools in the Jenkins Independent school system. My brother James Ivory Short Jr. Class 1948, Archie H. Short, deceased, Class 1951) and Phyllis Ann Short, deceased, Class 1955). My youngest sibling, Patricia (now deceased)completed the sixth grade at Dunham in 1951, the year we moved away.

I now live in the Cherokee National Forest, half way between Chattanooga and Knoxville, TN and 40-miles East of I-75. I will appreciate hearing from my class mates who graduated in 1954.

School Story:

As i look back on my youth, I realize that the fundamentals of education begin with devoted, competent teachers and that the basics learned at an early age survive and invigorate for a lifetime. The teacher, who, unquestionably, had the most influence on my life was Reba Taylor, my second and third grade teacher at Dunham.

She saw in me some things that no one else could see. She encouraged me to participate in class plays and to perform soliloquies in county and school competitions. She taught me the value of reading and introduced me to Mark Twain, who remains to this day, one of my favorite authors.

My small successes in life are owed to many benefactors, but to no one more than that excellent teacher, Reba Taylor.

I think she became Principal at Dunham later on. Whatever her successes, she deserved them.

I wish I had told her how much I appreciated all she did for me.

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