Dennis Garbis '70: A Remembrance

Originally posted Oct. 25, 2019.

Dennis Garbis, ‘70, Company C-2;
Commanding Officer, Company K-1,
“Kayo-K”, 1969-1970 - ‘Remembrance’

From my personal perspective, my fish year C.O., Dennis Garbis, ‘70, was a perfect fit, and great leader for ‘Kayo-K’;
“The best damn outfit, anywhere”.!
(“Stay out of our way...”)

As a new unit that year, 1969, Company K-1, having split off from Company C-2, ‘Cock Company’, with others to form a new 5th Battalion, 1st Brigade.
Mr. Garbis, Sir, & his Senior classmates were a genuinely inspirational influence for me...
(sometimes seemingly a ‘fish’, out of water.!)

He especially, along with my Dad (a WWII officer), kept me going that year... There was “no quit” in either one of them.

We came from similar families... Being a fellow ‘East coast Yankee’ (he from old Virginia.! He once told me “fish Jiga, they called me one too, and hell, I‘m from the capital of the Confederacy!”).

Both of us were ‘Architecture’ majors,
(he Construction, me Environmental Design).
He sympathized with me, and took me under his ‘Zip wing’ - - - but with absolutely no favoritism whatsoever.
(Sometimes it seemed the exact opposite).!

We also were a very small minority of students at A&M who grew up in the Eastern Orthodox (Greek)
faith... {Kinda like God had pointed the way for me to be assigned to this new ‘Engineering’ outfit}.

And being the only fish with some artistic ability, in a class of 30+ engineering ‘techies’, Mr. Garbis ‘tasked’ me with creating our new Company Sign. (It was chained & padlocked when not being worked on). I certainly felt the pressure of meeting outfit expectations, & didn’t want to fail anyone in that endeavor...!

Kayo-K worked, night and day, on the Bonfire stack, contributing to the tallest bonfire pile ever,
107 feet, 10 inches in November, 1969.

We won the “Hochmuth, Military Proficiency Award” that year, with our outstanding class of Seniors leading the way... and our other two upper classes following in-step... Quite the testimonial !!
Us fish were certainly on notice to “be sharp”, not to screw up too much, and to contribute !

[ In my class’ Junior year, we won the “Jouine Award for Scholastic Excellence”; the segment toward the General Moore Award that eluded us in that first year (the 2nd of only 3 Awards in-play back then).
Certainly a very good legacy for K-1 to leave in it’s first 4 years; tracing back to that great start.! ]

One of the Orthodox Church traditional customs is a ‘Celebration of Life’ ceremony a year after a member’s passing... Therefore this memorial recognition addendum for the C-2 (K-1) Reunion on Friday, October 25, 2019 at Duncan Dining Hall in remembrance of Dennis Garbis.

Rest assured, memories of newspaper stuffing his ‘Sr. quarters’ with fish buddies “in appreciation of his ‘big-brother style mentorship’” have been flooding back; along with fun thoughts of our ‘upper class inspired’ “Kayo K__men” quad job hit-crew bringing back a level of well-done satisfaction !

To get to some conclusion, suffice it to say that I wish that I could speak to Dennis in-person today.
We all live better lives for having met some good, quality folks along the way...
For me, Mr. Garbis & his Senior buds were some of the many ‘best Aggies’ on this life’s path !

Dennis’ (C-2) K-1 Zip buds were:
George Faulkner - XO
Dean Eshelman
Larry Forsythe
Tony Hermes
Jerry Paul
Alan Sanders
Steve Simpson
Ron Smith
Tom Washburn

Truthful regards, & Gig ‘em !!

Nick Jiga, ‘73, K-1 Scholastic Officer