Class of 1954--Sailor/Teacher

Marion Doss was born in Phoenix, Arizona December 10, 1936. Due to depression and war, his family moved often, coming to Kansas in 1943 and Topeka in 1949. Marion attended Crane Junior High School and then Highland Park High School, lettering in football, basketball and track and graduating first in his class. He represented Highland Park High School at the 1953 Sunflower Boys’ State. Since graduation, Marion has enjoyed overlapping careers at sea and in academe.

Marion received a Summerfield Scholarship to attend the University of Kansas, but instead opted for the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating with distinction and a Bachelor of Science (Engineering) in 1958. During a twenty-two year Navy career, Marion served as a surface line officer, naval aviator and intelligence officer. His more interesting tours of duty included flying satellite recovery helicopters, two combat tours in Vietnam (flying armored search and rescue helicopters and as naval intelligence advisor to the South Vietnamese Navy), counterintelligence and criminal investigations with the Naval Investigative Service in Spain and Morocco, serving on the staff of the Secretary of Defense in the office responsible for program oversight and management of all Defense counterintelligence and investigative activities, and finally as director of intelligence production and then executive officer at the Fleet Intelligence Center, Europe and Atlantic, supporting naval commanders and fleet units with a wide range of computerized data bases and finished intelligence products.

While still in the Navy, Marion attended Harvard University, where he earned the Master in Public Administration in 1964, and began his teaching career at the Naval Academy teaching history, government and seamanship. Following active naval service, Marion attended law school at the College of William and Mary receiving the Juris Doctor in 1983 and the Master of Law and Taxation in 1984. Since 1984, he has taught at James Madison University where he is currently Professor of Political Science and Law and Director of the Criminal Justice Program. He has authored numerous papers and articles and is co-author of a book, From Watergate to Whitewater: The Public Integrity War, published in 1997. Marion’s research interests include: criminal law and procedure, legal issues in criminal justice, comparative criminal justice, public corruption, intelligence, counterintelligence and counter terrorism. Marion is a life member of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Southern Criminal Justice Association, Virginia Association of Criminal Justice Educators (past president), Naval Intelligence Professionals, and the legal fraternity Phi Delta Phi. He is currently collaborating to develop a JMU institute housing two academic centers, one cooperating with Romanian and Moldovan universities to promote educational and developmental initiatives and another to study terrorism and political violence.

Marion and his wife Pat have six children, Steven, Katherine, Christopher, Charlton, Malia and Anne, and four grandchildren, Treyan, Shelby, Samantha and Sevaynna. He returns to Kansas frequently to visit his mother, Halaine Doss, his brother, George Doss and George’s family in rural Osage County.

Marion T. Doss, Jr.’s Remarks on his

HPHS HALL OF FAME INDUCTION, June 12, 1999

Thank you, Jim. Greetings fellow Scotties, Scots, distinguished guests, family and friends.

I am greatly honored and more than a little humbled to be here today on this occasion to receive your recognition and join those previously so recognized. Included among their ranks are some of my more influential mentors and role models.

That I am here today is not so much owing to anything I have done, but rather for what others have done for me. Many lives have touched mine, providing education, inspiration, encouragement, and support.

Of course, I owe this special moment to Dean Horton and the Selection Committee and to my classmates Shirley Long Dugger and Judy Beckham Walton who nominated me, and to many others too numerous to mention individually, but especially my parents, my teachers, my brother, my wife, and our six children. Joining me here this evening are my mother Halaine, my brother George, his wife Betty, my niece Debbie, my wife Pat, and my two eldest sons Steven and Christopher.

My biography characterizes me as a sailor and teacher. While this is true, it would perhaps have been even more descriptive to say student and traveler.

As a student, I am dedicated to life-long learning and education. While I try to share my zest for learning and what I have learned with others, I am first and foremost a student, like the student described in the Tao, learning by daily increment. And, as a student, I am also a traveler undertaking a magnificent voyage of discovery.

As a traveler, I am embarked not only on my personal odyssey, but one that is part of the greater collective journey of humankind in which we all participate. Like others before me, I consider success to be the journey itself and not a destination. Robert Louis Stevenson put it this way in El Dorado: "To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour." Therefore, as long as I live, no achievement, however satisfying, constitutes my final destination, but only the starting point for the next leg of my journey.

I have touched many ports since graduating from HPHS some 45years ago. Many of my fondest memories relate to the 3 formative years I spent here. It seems only yesterday and I surely remember my HPHS teachers and classmates just as vividly as anyone I have encountered since.

But, my personal challenge is to be a good traveler, to continue learning, to use what I learn constructively, and to avoid the temptation to rest on past laurels. As a teacher, I want to share with my students the insight and skills necessary to become, in their turn, successful travelers and life-long learners.

Both the Italians and Hawaiians have a salutation used both at meeting and at parting. What better way to encapsulate the continuity of our collective, ongoing pilgrimage. Thank you again, HPHS Alumni Association, for this most special honor. I bid you all a fond "aloha" and "ciao."