Capt. Larry Dzioba (Ret’d) Navy - R.I.P.
May 21st, 2007 at 6:56 am (family)
Very sadly Heather’s father died yesterday. It was expected however, and he died quietly in the presence of his family. I have known him since around 1978 and have a great many fond memories of his stories of life on the prairie homestead and through his love of family.
The following is from his Royal Roads Military College Class of 1949-53 comments:
Dzioba, Lawrence Alexander (died May 20, 2007)
I have only one regret concerning my 37 years in the Navy that followed graduation from Royal Roads. At no time did my Lords and Masters see fit to send me on courses covering carpentry and plumbing, both so needed for a comfortable retirement. A year long course in Gunnery and another year in Weapons proved useful at one time but how I wish someone had slipped in, “Care and Maintenance of The Table Saw”, with Ballistic Theory.
The Royal Navy’s Staff Course at Greenwich and the USN’s War College at Newport gave superb coverage to subjects so important at one time: paragraph indentation and Trireme tactics in the nuclear age. Neither course included, “Unblocking Sewer Drains”, a subject that could easily have been blended into either without disturbing the purity of content. My eight sea-going appointments, four of which were in Command, saw the Navy live up to its promise in 1951 that I would see the world. The Navy conveniently didn’t mention that 75% of the world’s surface is covered by water, hence, the briny deep was 75% of what I saw.
Three appointments in England, two in the United States and the eight at sea only left time to fit in an appointment as Base Commander in Esquimalt before Jo and I retired to our home in Oak Bay. With no regrets, the only time we managed to fit in for Ottawa was that spent at the airport.
Michael Broad said,
December 21, 2007 at 11:26 am
I’m hoping that I’ve got the correct Heather Dzioba, if not then I apologise profusely. If I have then I remember her father from his secondment to the Royal Navy (and I’m sure that my father will have other recollections as well). Larry’s family lived in a small village just outside Portsmouth, England in the mid to late 1960’s. I remember the family with a great deal of affection. Larry I remember as a imposing character and I am sorry to hear of his passing earlier this year.
Of all the family I knew Bruce the best and my guess is that Heather would have been no more that five or six at the time I knew the family. Of all them, I knew Bruce the best and I seem to remember another brother called Richard.