Daniel Garfield Traver

Daniel Garfield Traver

Daniel Garfield Traver of Greensboro, retired Army aviator and teacher, died Thursday night, February 15, 2007 at Greene Point Health Care Center in Union Point, GA. Dan was born on March 1, 1931 in Pottsville, PA while his parents, Garfield C. and Dorothy Swanson Traver, were travelling. He graduated from Frewsburg, New York Central School and enlisted in the Army in 1949.

He served in the Artillery until he graduated from Officers Candidate School in 1951 and was sent to Japan and later Korea during the war. As a first lieutenant in 1953, he married Betty Howell of Atlanta, an American Red Cross hospital recreation worker, in three ceremonies in Japan while he was stationed at Kobe Port.

In the Army he was a stevedore officer, ski trooper, paratrooper and senior aviator. In 1966 he was chief of aviation maintenance for General William Westmoreland at US Army Vietnam Headquarters at Tan Son Nhut. Dan was awarded the Army Commendation Medal three times, the Air Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal and the Legion of Merit. Retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1989, he settled in Greensboro, where he restored and renovated an 1849 house and taught at the University of Georgia, Clarke Central and Cedar Shoals High School in Athens. In 1979 he was vocational supervisor of Greene County High School after teaching math and United States History there.

He was chosen Greensboro''s Man of the Year in 1978 and Greene County''s Citizen of the Year in 2000, was president of the Greene County Historical Society from 1977 to 1978 and 1996 to 2000, was commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4259 and secretary-treasurer of the Greene County Airport Authority from 1998 to 2003. It was under his leadership that the VFW erected the monument to the county''s veterans of all wars on the courthouse grounds.

During 1990 he was photographer-reporter for "These Old Houses," a weekly feature in the Lake Oconee News. Also with his wife he wrote the weekly "Archives" column of Greene County history 20, 50 and 100 years ago in the Herald Journal.

He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Greensboro, the Quiet Birdmen, the Experimental Aircraft Association, Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association, American Legion, Smithsonian Institution, a charter member of the Greene County Historical Society and of the American Air Museum in Britain and an associate member of the American Red Cross Overseas Association.

He received a bachelor''s degree from the University of Omaha in 1960 and a master''s from the University of Georgia in 1973.

An extensive traveler, he lived in Japan, Korea, Germany and Vietnam and visited Canada and Mexico while in the Army. With his wife he toured Albania, Austria, Canada, Egypt, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Jordan, Macao, Sweden, Syria, Thailand and Turkey. They spent three weeks in Japan to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 2003.

His survivors are his wife, two brothers, Philip Traver of Statesville, NC and Thomas Traver of Jamestown, NY; several nieces and nephews and their descendants. Dedicated distant cousins, James W. and Carol M. Brittain, came from Gray, GA, one day a week to help him and Betty since Dan was hospitalized in May, 2006.

A memorial service will be announced at a later date. Contributions may be made in Dan''s memory to the First United Methodist Church, 202 W. Broad Street, Greensboro, GA 30642. McCommons Funeral Home, 109 W. Broad St., Greensboro, GA, (706) 453-2626, is in charge of arrangements. Visit us at www.mccommonsfuneralhome.com to sign the online guest register.

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