A Life of Service
By Julia Martin
The scent of blueberry muffins wafting on a breeze … the bark of a Sheltie eager to play … a story warmly told with laughter and love … and the kind and generous heart of a woman who truly cared. These are all sights, sounds and scents that remind so many former Civil Air Patrol cadets of Lt. Col. Ruth Grogan.
Grogan’s devotion to “her” cadets didn’t stop when they completed the cadet program. She would follow them throughout their later years, listening and continuing to mentor whether they went on to serve in the military, continued with Civil Air Patrol, or moved on to their careers. And when she died Aug. 21, ending more than 50 years of mentorship, her wish was for so many more young people to experience CAP.
She has fulfilled that mission with the establishment of the Lt. Col. Ruth Grogan Estate Fund, which has donated in excess of $600,000 to support Civil Air Patrol.
“It’s a joy to be able to share her story through this named fund,” said Kristina Jones, CAP chief growth officer and president and executive director of the CAP Foundation. “Her gift is extremely meaningful to supporting CAP’s mission. The annual distribution will help CAP fulfill its mission of volunteers serving America’s communities, saving lives and shaping futures.”
Ruth joined CAP in 1960 through her husband, Anthony “Tony” Grogan, an avid flyer. Before his death in August 2013, they both served as leaders and mentors for thousands of the organization’s youth and adult members.
One of their most significant contributions to Civil Air Patrol was the development of training techniques for on-call ground rescues that CAP searchers still use today. They participated in and were personally responsible for the rescue and recovery of countless downed pilots and lost hikers from New England to Tennessee. One time when Ruth Grogan was on a ground mission, she discovered the pilot hadn’t survived. Always thinking of others, she talked to her team, letting them know how hard they had worked and making sure they could cope with that loss of life.
When the Grogans weren’t on search and rescue missions, they traveled as members of multiple camping clubs, with their four Shelties, to campgrounds and rallies from coast to coast, telling the story of Civil Air Patrol along the way. One person to benefit from those stories was Frank LaPierre, a former cadet and retired U.S. Air Force officer, who first met Ruth and her husband on a family camping trip when he was 12. That chance encounter stirred his own interest in CAP, and the close friendship formed that day, he said, changed his life.
As just one of many young people whose career paths and futures the Grogans would help shape, LaPierre said many of his junior high and high school classmates who were in CAP just raved about the couple.
“She was very proper when it came to customs and courtesies,” he said. “She made it a point to teach—‘this is why you do this’ and ‘this is why your uniform must be properly inspected.’” The cadets the Grogans mentored received top-notch care, LaPierre said.
“She was the nurturing type, always very positive, empathetic and encouraging to everyone she met. She was one of the people we went to first, but when it came time for logistics and planning, they would turn to Tony. They just complemented each other so well.”
After her husband died and she retired from Civil Air Patrol, her dedication to making a difference in people’s lives continued. She became very involved in the Crossville, Tennessee, community where she lived: teaching young women in a transition shelter how to sew their own clothes; serving as a crossing guard for schoolchildren; and working with animal rescue groups and shelters, continuing her lifelong love of animals. And she never stopped telling her stories. One of her favorite tales was how she trained horses in Hollywood, including some for movie legend John Wayne.
LaPierre summed up Grogan’s impact on the people she met: “My life is so much richer because I had Ruth in it. Her life was service to others, and that’s exactly how she always lived it. That’s just who she was her entire life.”