My father, Walter Brophy Earl, didn’t say much. I learned most about him through my Mother or by observing him. He was essentially an eccentric nerd as a young man, helping his parents, Cornwall’s Town Clerks, collecting stamps, and a love of projecting movies outdoors for a neighborhood theater. He quickly went on to do heroic yet life-shattering things during the Second World War. He wanted the happy post-war life promised to veterans but came out of the experience disconnected and with chronic pain. With the help of the GI Bill, formally known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, and his own technical savvy he was able to land a job working at West Point Military Academy as a photographer/darkroom specialist for The Signal Corps. The job was to take, develop and print any photos that the Army needed taking at the Academy, a job that allowed him hours with the artifacts and documents of the West Point Museum. My Dad had a love of local history that was supported early on by the legends, locations and descendants of the people who made the history, and the job at the Academy gave him access to the actual items, a real “kid in the candy store” situation.
Previously, I said I learned about him through observation. The days he would be doing routine work he would usually fall asleep on the couch till dinner. When he would come home after working on documenting a historical object that had some significance to our Hudson Valley area, he would be lit up and talkative (to a degree) and willing to share the experience. His enthusiastic descriptions, plus the photos and copies of old maps that he would bring home, became an important and fun way to connect with him. I can say that my research into The Clove started with his notes on our family and his investigation into our Claudius Smith connection.
He was also proud to be a member of our local fire company, Highland Engine No. 1. When they had their 125th anniversary celebration in 1955, he wrote the history for the commemorative book they published that year. In it he ended his forward with this:
His invitation to go back in time with him is something I am trying to do with my research and writing of the Clove Book. I am collaborating with him, working on a connection that I lost when I was 16, becoming old enough to really want to question him about things. I could be saying, “Now let’s go back to the year 1968.”
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