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<p><em>Harold Edward Yager</em> was born in Kansas City, MO to William Harold and Lucy Glascock Yager. He grew up in New London, MO, a small town, as the oldest of three children. He excelled in academics and athletics and honed life skills and values through activities such as earning Eagle Scout and serving as a lifeguard and volunteer fireman. He also played trumpet in the high school band.</p>
<p>After a year of community college, Harold arrived at West Point. He excelled in math and earned the respect of classmates by displaying his athletic talent in intramural sports, especially those on the Company C-1 brigade championship football team. Harold participated in Cadet Forum trips to New York City, as well as re-polished his trumpet skills in the Cadet Pep Band (upon realizing that playing loudly at basketball games meant free time away from the Academy).</p>
<p>Harold loved “Mizzou” and, with his wry smile and sense of humor, was a “Show Me” guy. He developed his understanding and lifelong love of golf playing the West Point Golf Course.</p>
<p>An unscheduled roommate scramble during cow year began a fortuitous two-year roommate assignment with Eric Thomas. Harold observed and absorbed Eric’s skills in tutoring classmates in academic fundamentals and time management, especially his technique of quickly closing textbooks at the end of the allotted study period to head for a quick pick-up basketball game at Alumni Gym. He and Eric became close friends. Eric introduced Harold to his future wife, Kay, in 1967.</p>
<p>After graduation in 1968, Harold branched Signal Corps and served in Vietnam, transferring to Military Intelligence (MI) during the tour. Before leaving for Vietnam, he promised Kay he would propose when he safely returned. True to his word, they were married on August 14, 1971, surrounded by classmates, friends, and family. Harold’s next assignment was with the 109th MI Group as a company commander at Fort Bragg, NC. He had the difficult assignment of debriefing former POWs with the goal of identifying MIAs. It was a stressful but meaningful job, and he traveled the country gathering valuable information on hundreds of missing comrades. He received the Bronze Star for his achievements. In 1973, Harold resigned from the Army to pursue a civilian life and build a family.</p>
<p>Harold and Kay moved to her hometown of Cullman, AL, where their children, Jessica and Ward, were born. Harold joined Kay’s family’s tire business, where his expertise and supervision increased efficiency and grew the company. Seeing a new managerial opportunity with the Atlanta-based agricultural cooperative, Gold Kist, he moved to Moultrie, GA in 1981. In short time, his value to the company was recognized, and he was promoted to district manager, responsible for multiple stores across several states that produced millions in earnings. To be more centralized in his region, he moved to Dalton, GA in 1984. The position meant lots of travel. Harold did everything he could to stay close to his family, including adapting his West Point tutoring style via the telephone for his children, plus countless and tireless back-and-forth drives for special occasions. In 1994, Gold Kist selected Harold to tackle a new district in the mid-South, and the family moved to Memphis, TN. Harold traveled across Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas for the next several years, still tirelessly finding ways to be home for significant events and family time. By 2002, he retired from the business world and began looking for what would become his next career—teaching.</p>
<p>Based upon meeting “a West Point graduate with extensive math competence who exuded personal honor,” Craigmont High School Principal Jim Long hired Harold in 2004 to teach math. A few years later, Harold transferred to Ridgeway High School, where he taught algebra 2, honors algebra, and honors pre-calculus. Spending his last teaching years at White Station High School, an outstanding public magnet school in Memphis, Harold retired in 2021.</p>
<p>Harold relied on his West Point education and master’s degree in education from the University of Memphis to leap into the world of young minds with a passion acknowledged by many of his past students. Many shared their feelings through notes and visits with Kay after Harold passed. Two particularly memorable expressions were “He believed in me even when I was convinced that I would never be able to understand calculus,” and “He ran a tight ship in the classroom and his way equaled success.”</p>
<p>In 2015 Harold joined the Golf Nuts, a group of golf connoisseurs who enjoyed playing on various courses together throughout the year. Harold (known as “Yogi” to them) was loved for his straightforward, unfailing desire to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons. He constantly amazed them with his golf skills, such as on “closest to the pin” prize holes, where he routinely “snaked” them to claim the prize. Harold’s West Point golfers enjoyed playing the game with Golf Nuts on many occasions, too.</p>
<p>Throughout life, and in all aspects, Harold epitomized the West Point motto of Duty, Honor, Country. He faced challenges with a calm, steady demeanor and provided care for those close to him as best he could. He was a loyal friend and silent leader...unless giving one of his deep, barrel-chested and thunderous laughs delivered with his head-cocked-to-the-side smile.</p>
<p>He was truly one of the “good guys.”</p>
<p><em>— Family, Friends and C-1 Classmates</em></p>
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