This Thanksgiving, we salute two benefactors among the thousands of supporters to whom the Naval Institute is so grateful.
Captain Harry W. Konkel, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Quiet and unassuming, Harry Konkel of Portland, Maine, has been a member of the Naval Institute since 1958—and has saved every issue of Proceedings along the way. He has also been a generous donor.
Although he had no family serving in the military, Harry knew he wanted to attend the U.S. Naval Academy and become a naval officer from the time he was a boy growing up in Wyoming. His desire and tenacity to achieve this goal were undeterred even after he fell short on his first attempt. He worked hard and tried again, this time receiving a coveted congressional appointment and entrance into the Academy the following year.
After graduating in 1958, Harry packed his bags for further training in Pensacola, Florida. Traveling home to Wyoming that first Christmas was not an option, so Harry chose to visit his aunt and uncle in Ohio. After a full day of driving (made longer because he had to return to Pensacola two hours into the trip for his sword, needed for a classmate’s wedding), his relatives took him to three holiday parties in one evening. At the final party, the daughter of a family friend, home on Christmas break during her senior year of college, was standing across the room. He asked his aunt to introduce them and, as Harry said, “a year and a half later, we were married.” Harry and his wife Susie remained married almost 49 years and had two children. She succumbed to cancer in 2009.
A surface-line officer, Harry served a full naval career that included command of the USS Laffey (DD-724), the USS Damato (DD-871), and the USS Yellowstone (AD-41). In addition to his generosity to the Naval Institute, he has also been a dedicated supporter of the Naval Academy and many New England health and cultural organizations.
The Naval Institute is proud to call Captain Harry Konkel a Life Member, a donor, and a friend.
Everett P. Weaver
Though the Institute staff has the pleasure of dealing on a daily basis with many extraordinary members, authors, and donors, some inevitably stand out. The late Everett “Tuck” Weaver of Winnetka, Illinois, who died in September, was one of those. Generous and modest in the extreme, Tuck was a true gentleman. In his final years, as his health deteriorated and he lost his sight, he remained gracious and interested in events around him and had others read Institute books and magazines aloud to him.
After graduating from the University of Illinois in 1940 with a degree in journalism, Tuck worked for his uncle at the American Colloid Company (ACC) until the United States’ entry into World War II. He volunteered for submarine duty and ultimately made ten wartime patrols in the Pacific. One of his skippers, the legendary submariner and Medal of Honor recipient Eugene Fluckey of the USS Barb (SS-220), made a tremendous impression on the young Weaver that lasted a lifetime. Years later Tuck was instrumental in getting Admiral Fluckey’s autobiography Thunder Below! The USS Barb Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II published by the University of Illinois Press in 1997, and Carl LaVO’s biography, The Galloping Ghost: The Extraordinary Life of Submarine Captain Eugene Fluckey, published by the Naval InstitutePress (2007). He also made a subvention gift to help underwrite historian Paul Stillwell’s Press book, Submarine Stories. One chapter includes the recollections of the late Rear Admiral Robert McNitt, who had been executive officer of the Barb during part of Weaver’s time on board. In addition to underwriting its publication, Tuck anonymously donated copies of the books to submarine museums and to Barb crewmen and families.
After the war, Tuck returned to ACC, from which he eventually retired in the 1990s as president, chairman, and CEO. During more than 50 years there, he and his brother William, a fighter pilot during World War II, successfully built the small regional mineral producer into the huge conglomerate now known as Amcol International Corporation. In retirement he remained involved in civic and philanthropic causes, including the Naval Institute, where he was recognized as a Commodore and a major supporter of the Press and Oral History programs.
Several years after his first wife, Peggy, died in the mid-1950s, Everett married Rita Campbell. They raised Peggy and Tuck’s five children, and the couple had two more of their own. After gently caring for her through several years of ill health, Tuck lost his beloved Rita in 2011. He is survived by his 7 children, 15 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren.