OBITUARY - VERNON DALE SCHRAG
Vernon Dale Schrag (Vern), age 91, living at The Glebe, Daleville, VA, passed away on August 12, 2024.
Vern was born August 8, 1933 at his parents’ family hospital in Newton, Kansas and then taken to their home in the small town of Augusta, Kansas (also near Wichita). His parents were both teachers in the Augusta Public Schools. This provided Vern the opportunity to become acquainted with many of the people in Augusta at an early age. And being a small oil refinery town, it had interesting dynamics — most living there were refinery workers, merchants, or school teachers. Vern really enjoyed visiting the farms where his parents grew up, very different farms in different parts of Kansas. Both parents’ families were of German descent, and stories and examples of efforts needed to get here from the Old Country, hard farm work, and the superb craftsmanship of their homes and furniture made lasting impressions on Vern.
Vern was an only child who received his then 6 foot height by 8th grade. This, and being left-handed, gave him an advantage in the sports he loved — basketball and tennis.
After graduating from high school, Vern chose to attend Kansas University in Lawrence, near Kansas City. He received his BS degree in Electrical Engineering and was in the Air Force ROTC program, so had an obligation to serve in the Air Force after graduation.
While a senior at KU, Vern received an attractive Fellowship offer from Yale University to pursue a Masters Degree in Engineering, which he gratefully accepted. After graduating KU, Vern married Marilyn German, a KU student from Arlington, KS. Together they proceeded to New Haven for Vern to pursue and receive his ME Degree from Yale.
When it came time to fulfill the Air Force obligation, Vern became a 2nd Lieutenant stationed at Rome Air Development Center on Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, NY, in the cold northern part of NY State. This became another meaningful part of Vern’s life journey as his assignment was creation and management of research and development programs in electromagnetic intelligence data processing — significantly more exposure and responsibility than most in their early 20s typically receive.
After his Air Force service obligation, Vern elected to remain in the same job as an Air Force Civil Servant, until he was 29 years of age. He then decided it was time to explore employment in industry to broaden his horizons and chose a job with IBM Federal Systems Division, allowing him to continue to use his Air Force experience.
Vern spent 25 years with IBM at multiple locations, last at Washington, DC, Division HQ, managing Air Force, Joint Chiefs, and NASA business opportunities for IBM-FSD. Upon retiring, he immediately went to work for smaller companies in the DC area that did business similar to IBM-FSD and many times had been good IBM team members on complex programs. After 10 additional years, he fully retired from the aerospace industry in 1998.
In 1975, Vern remarried to Marilyn Sue Miller, who joined him in moving from Endicott, NY, to Boston, MA, and then Washington, DC. As Vern’s father was a manual arts teacher, Vern had early exposure to designing and building things and chose house design as his favorite hobby. This interest resulted in designing, drawing, and managing building their home in Great Falls, VA (their 14-year residence in the Washington, DC, area), and then their retirement home of 24 years on Smith Mountain Lake near Roanoke, VA.
Vern and Sue thoroughly enjoyed living on the lake, especially watching their grandchildren and great grandchildren learn swimming and watersports in the lake.
In 2022 Vern and Marilyn Sue decided caring for a big house was more than they could enjoyably do, so sold their lake home and moved to a continuing care home, The Glebe, just north of Roanoke in Daleville, VA. Vern and Sue loved their two-bedroom apartment there, beautiful mountain views, and a wonderful dining room that eliminated the need for daily cooking.
Vern is survived by his wife Marilyn Sue, daughter Jean Coles (husband Dave), son Bob Schrag (wife Robin), and Marilyn Sue’s children Rick Emmett and Suzi Dewing (husband Rusty). Vern and Sue together have seven grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren.
