Vietnam veteran, Rye resident and Eastchester Post member Michael Fix will deliver the keynote address Rye’s 2017 Veterans Day ceremony. After introductory remarks by Post Commander Fred deBarros, additional welcoming remarks will be made by Post member and Mayor pro tem Terry McCartney, and NYS Senator George Latimer.
The ceremony will begin at 10:30 am on November 11, 2017 at City Hall
Michael P. Fix grew up in Torrington, Ct. and graduated from Fairfield University in 1965 with a major in Renaissance History and Theology. He enlisted in the Army in February of 1966 and completed OCS where he was assigned to load ships bound for Viet Nam. During his service to the country he was involved with the conversion to containerization movement of cargo to Southeast Asia.
He is a vice-president of Merrill Lynch where he has worked for thirty nine years.
Mike is one of the eight founders and first president of the USO at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts. He has written extensively on the men and women who died in World War I, World War II, Korea and Viet Nam from Eastchester. He curated a museum show entitled “The Hero Next Door” at Concordia College.
He became the Chairman of the American Red Cross in Westchester in June of 2001. The Westchester Chapter was the back up to New York City, so during 9/11, he was very involved with the county and the New York City efforts to help Westchester families.
He is a member of the Eastchester Rotary, a Paul Harris Fellow, and a member of the Gift of Life Board. He is the Adjutant of the LeRoy Gregory American Legion in Eastchester.
Mike is married forty-seven years to Christine Naughton of County Offaly, Ireland, and has two grown sons and five grandchildren.
A Stain On Rye That Could Last Forever
On veteran’s Day 2017 let us not forget WWII veteran Robert W. Schubert and the way he was acutely mistreated in the last years of his life by two successive Rye City administrations.
Robert William Schubert was a long-time resident of Rye, NY. He was 88 when he passed away at his home. He was a World War II veteran naval commander. During World War II, Bob Schubert was assigned to the LSM-441 of the Pacific Theater. He captained the first non-Red Cross ship into Nagasaki, Japan, after the detonation of the second atomic bomb. He remained in the US Navy for 20 years, retiring as a Commander. Later, he continued his dedicated service as the Commander of the American Legion Post 128.
After active duty, Mr. Schubert worked at Columbia University’s Nevis Laboratories as a Chief Engineer on the Synchrocyclotron project for the Navy. He joined Watson Laboratories and worked as Chief Mechanical Engineer on the Naval Ordnance Research Computer (NORC), the fastest computer in existence in 1954. Mr. Schubert had several overseas assignments for IBM including Director of Defense and Complex Contracts in Paris, France, and Director of the Maritime Systems Center in Brussels, Belgium, and in Milan, Italy.
Although Mr. Schubert was always involved and very well known in Rye he walked into the main political spotlight after the water dried up in his pond as a result of an un-permitted construction project on the upstream neighboring property. This excavation project – begun as a simple secret attempt to save money by working illegally while the city naturalist was on vacation – was allowed to proceed un-remediated due to compromised city hall officials and their undisclosed conflicts of interest with paid influence peddlers serving select members of the political class of Rye.
After City Hall refused to enforce its wetlands codes (in an effort to selectively save a Rye political donor $100,000 dollars or more in permitting, environmental consulting and construction fees) Bob Schubert set out determined to require the City to do what it had purposely failed to do from the start – enforce its Wetland and Watercourse Code Chapter 195 and restore the historic wetlands on his Forest Avenue property.
In February of 2009 in an effort to avoid municipal embarrassment and an attempt to silence Bob Schubert, Senior Rye City administrators attempted to have Bob committed to the psychiatric unit of the Westchester County Medical Center. But the City’s attempt failed badly and baldly – resulting in the firing of the then city manager – and failing to deter or silence Bob Schubert.
The second round of attempts to silence Bob Schubert began on March 18, 2011 when now proven serial public liar Ex-City Manager Scott Pickup claimed that Bob had threatened his life and the life of then Councilwoman Catherine Parker. At the time Bob was 88 years old, required oxygen tanks to breath and weighted in at every bit of 100 lbs.
The third and final attempt to silence Bob Schubert occurred after Bob later again entered City Hall to view a public wetlands map located on the wall. Bob was then again charged by police and prosecuted after yet another malicious false complaint lodged by City Manager Pickup.
The two Rye City Administrations responsible for these abominations should bow their heads in shame forevermore and honest American’s should never forget nor hesitate to speak out about the way this distinguished Rye citizen was abused in the last years of his life by corrupt officials and others for money.
If you’d like, please watch the short video below as Robert W. Schubert was honored in front of a city council, who refused to even acknowledge his passing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BESKIYUU6I
We miss you Bob. We honor your service to our country. It was a privilege to know you.