Marilyn Ryan, R.P.T., CPhT, is a pharmacy technician and purchaser at our behavioral health hospital. Her sons, Daniel and Jason, and her daughter-in-law Haley (Jason’s wife) also work for UF Health.

On behalf of the family, Marilyn wishes to honor her father, the late William Schumeyer IV.

• Who: William Schumeyer IV
• Relationship to Marilyn: Father
• Military branch: U.S. Navy

Was he called into combat? He was a veteran of World War II (Asiatic Pacific Campaign), the Korean Conflict, the Cuban Missile Crisis (Armed Forces Expeditionary Service), and the Vietnam War.

What do you remember most about him and his service? My dad enlisted in 1944, when he was 17 years old, and he retired in 1978. In addition to his combat experiences, he worked at the White House and served on the Kennedy Presidential Yacht during the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson.

He retired from the U.S. Navy as a master chief petty officer — the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank (E—9), in the U. S. Navy and U. S. Coast Guard, just above senior chief petty officer.

My dad retired from military service in 1978 and died a few months later, after he suffered a fatal heart attack while rototilling a garden for an elderly couple.

I am extremely proud of my father for his time in the military. He could have retired several times but chose to reenlist to keep our country safe, fighting in not just one war, but in three. At the time of his death he had just retired as a master chief petty officer in the Navy. He passed away when I was in the sixth grade. I wish he had been here to meet his grandsons and feel their pride in the stories they hear about him.