Jabus W. RAWLS Jabus 'Jay' W. Rawls aged 96 died peacefully on May 9, 2011 surrounded by his loving family. He was a man of strong faith, sterling character, extraordinary integrity, and abiding affection for his family. He enlisted in the United States Army before WWII, serving as an officer in the Coast Artillery at Fort Barrancas, Florida, and Fort Bragg North Carolina. A favorite prewar posting was the Panama Canal Zone where he commanded a unit charged with clearing hilltop jungle sites for installation of a battery of anti-aircraft artillery to guard the canal. During WWII he served with distinction in England, North Africa, and Italy. He was a staff officer with Generals Mark Clark and Dwight Eisenhower in the planning and execution of Operation Torch, the British-American invasion of French North Africa. He was especially proud of his wartime service, coordinating joint British and American forces. In recognition of this service, King George VI named him 'an honorary officer in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire,' an order of chivalry founded by the British monarchy. Following the war Colonel Rawls continued his distinguished military career as an officer at the Pentagon. In 1954 he left the Army and began his second career as an engineer and supervisor with the Boeing Company in Seattle. He served on various aerospace projects including the BOMARC, ROLAND, and HAWK (an anti-missile missile which he named), the Lunar Orbiter and the Saturn V rocket. He retired from Boeing in 1978. Jabus 'Jay' was born in Columbia, Mississippi on August 23, 1914 and had seven brothers and sisters. He graduated from Mississippi State University with a degree in Civil Engineering and later was awarded a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. The love of his life was his wife Kathleen who predeceased himin 2006 after 69 years of devoted married life. In their retirement years together, Jay and Kathleen traveled abroad frequently, visiting England, Spain, Germany, Japan and China. He is survived by two sisters, Mary Annette Thompson and Lillian Thomae of Mississippi; three children, David Rawls of Idaho, James Rawls of California, and Melissa Deitrick of Washington; six grandchildren, Paula Kay of Alaska, Justin Rawls of Washington, Benjamin Rawls of California, Elizabeth McRae of Australia, Kerry Strong of Texas, and Wade Deitrick of Washington, and eight great-grand children. The family requests memorial bequests be made to the Judson Park Foundation, 23600 Marine View Drive, Des Moines, WA 98198.