Christopher DuVall DeVier

Senior Electrical Technician for
Baltimore Gas and Electric
7/2/1936 - 9/22/2005
Buried:
Louden Park Cemetery, Rose Hill

Dad just after his birth with Lucy
Perkins, his nanny. She was the daughter of a slave. Because he
couldn't say Mrs. Perkins, he called her "Perkie"

With his elder brothers Clint and
Charles, Jr.

age 2

With one his puppies - I think this
one he named "Shot"

With two of his father's myriad of bird dogs

PFC DeVier - in the Dental Clinic

While in the army - the acting bug bit and he starred in the role of
Digger in a base production of The Hasty Heart

It must have been very difficult from
him to listen for his cues and affect an Australian accent - while
virtually deaf from the ordinance that exploded next to his head
With the omni-present recoding
equipment at St. John's Episcopal
Baltimore City College High School
At Blackwater Falls
 left to right: Marjorie Glenn DeVier, dad, Myrth Glenn, Richard N. Glenn, Margaret
Ellers-Charbonnet, Sanford Glenn
 with
Jeanne and Paul Stevens - Jeanne was a friend of my mother's and
Paul was friend of my dad's - they set the two up on a date and they
eventually got married |
Born July 2, 1936 in Harrisonburg;
student in Harrisonburg primary school; graduated from Baltimore
City College High School, then a college prep school, in January
1954; U. S. Army, 101st Airborne active duty, 1954-57, discharged
from active service due to total deafness; U. S. Army Reserves
1957-1961, honorably discharged; attended law school at the
University of Baltimore; sang as a member of the Alamedia Light
Opera Company from 1951-54 and thereafter from 1957 until his death
in 2005; member of the Baltimore Chorale; the youngest son of
Charles W. DeVier, Sr. and his wife Helen Margaret Miller.
Dad was born in Harrisonburg and lived
there until the age of 13 or 14. In 1950, his mother returned to her
hometown of Baltimore taking him with her. He began 8th grade at
Roland Park Jr. High School but wrote one time that he had
difficulty adjusting. Not because of his surroundings, but because
of his past. He recalled that he was always anxious and constantly
remembered his mother's torment while married to his father. He used
to get sick in the mornings and was frequently taken out of school
for trips to Florida. One such trip involved an ear infection that
he had contracted from one of his father's bird dogs. During WWII and
without penicillin, the doctor lanced his eardrum, which of course
drained, and his parents were then advised to take him to Florida so that
the heat would dry up the infection. It finally cleared - but he was
left with a scarred eardrum and constant ringing in his right ear.
Once in Baltimore, he lived with his
mother's mother, Mrs. Ella DuVall Miller, at her family home at 505 Franklin Terrace. He
attended Baltimore City College High School, and joined the Glee
Club. At the age of 15 he was invited to join the Alamedia Light
Opera Company because he had a lovely baritone voice, and could read
music. He graduated a year and half late from City in February 1955
and spend a half-year in Junior College. Like his father, he had had
lessons on the trumpet, clarinet and piano and probably wanted
nothing more than to be a musician. He has said that while in high
school and college, he had no idea what he wanted to do. The thought
of being a musician scared him because he didn't think he had a
thorough background.
Drafted by the U.S. Army in late
1955, he was sent to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for
membership in the newly reactivated 101st Airborne Infantry. Rendered totally deaf by
an ordinance accident, he was transferred to Mechanics School. While
there, he had another soldier come after him with a bayonet and a
fight ensued. Both men landed in the hospital, dad with a
broken jaw, further complicating the issues with his ear, and the other man with internal injuries.
Dad apparently had a mean left hook. While in the
hospital as a dental patient, he worked as a Chair Assistant and
subsequently spent the rest of his service in the Medical Corps. In
1957, he along with members of the 101st Airborne from Fort
Campbell, KY were sent to Little Rock, Arkansas to counter the
governor's attempt to block black students from entering Little Rock
High. He sent several letters to my mother at this time, detailing what
went on as he as the other members of his unit faced down the locals.
He married my mother, Marjorie Claire
Glenn in June of 1959, following his discharge from active service
after Little Rock in October 1957. My mother had told him that she
would wait for him and indeed she did. He joined the reserves
and had as his commanding officer, a former U.S. Army nurse and
WWII veteran, as well as Maryland's former governor, William Donald
Schafer, with whom he also went to high school. He spent at year
working at Bethlehem Steel and quickly became and electrical
apprentice at BGE. He worked outside and drove hundreds of miles
a week but refused an indoor desk job with the company on several
occasions because he loved being outside. He worked downtown during
the Baltimore Riots in 1968 to help reconnect lines and restore
power in places where vandals had looted and burned. He got shot at,
bitten by dogs, and chased by cows; propositioned by women and men,
even fell though a ceiling and landed on a mattress in a basement of
a vacant home.
He got locked on a mall roof and had to remove snakes from his
tool kits and company cars; he went to most of the local prisons and
asylums to do electrical work; he delivered a baby on the front seat
of his company car in the middle of one Baltimore's famous ice
storms. Each week he came home with a new story about something that
happened at work. Sometimes it was simply 2 inch long roaches he'd
bring home in a jar to show mom, and sometimes he'd come home with
stitches in his ankle. One time he came home with a kitten. He
retired from the company after 37 years as a Senior Electrical
Tester and with a citation from the company and the police
department for safe driving. He attended night school in the early sixties as well and
studied law, but did not like the lying that he felt lawyers had to
do and thus dropped from classes.
As a child, I remember that he worked
overtime on Saturdays for extra money and took repair jobs for
neighbors and our church, again for the money and because he liked
to tinker with electronics. He was always on call with BGE during
storm trouble, most particularly when hurricane Agnes hit the
Baltimore-D.C area in 1972. He spent evenings at choir practice,
taking my sister and myself to piano lessons and ballet, me to art
lessons, sis to cello lessons. When I had my stroke at the age of 5
- he would go to work, come home, eat dinner, shower, change and
drive to the hospital where he spent the night in a upright chair
next to my bed. My nurse woke him in the morning, he had breakfast
with me then left, went to back work and repeated the entire process
over again - for 2+ weeks. He drove sis to orchestra practice for
the myriad of orchestras that she played with and he took all of us
to the opera and the symphony. Whenever a new musical was released,
he would buy the LP, introducing me very early to shows like Hair,
Fiddler On The Roof, Camelot, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, Hello Dolly!,
etc. We went to see the older shows like The Student Prince and
Desert Song. He studied voice for a while as well, although he
seemed to be able to do naturally what others took years to learn.
His voice teacher offered him a slot with the Baltimore Opera chorus
and encouraged him to audition for the now defunct Baltimore
Symphony Chorus. When shows like Chicago and Phantom of the Opera
hit the big screen, he eagerly went - and came home with a critique
of each performance. Simply put, he loved music and theater.
He decided when I was 16 that come
hell of high water, I was going to learn to drive and so he took the
family car down to the veterans hospital where he had a left-foot
accelerator installed. He then marched me over to drivers ed and
wangled with the instructor so he could use that car to teach me to
drive. Learn I did, and quickly too. He wanted me to be
self-sufficient I suppose, and being able to drive he said would
give me independence. He also taught me about the engine, and while
I certainly am no mechanic, I know enough to keep from getting
ripped off by other mechanics.
Because of his love of the outdoors,
our family always spent time in West Virginia on vacation. Summers
were spent at the beach, where we stayed with my godmother, and fall
was spent at Blackwater Falls, West Virginia in a huge 8 person cabin where my
godmother, my mother's parents and dad's mother would stay for the
week. He took us hiking and introduced my sister and myself to the
beauty of the state park and the surrounding area. His ashes are
scattered at Lindy Point Overlook, a place in the park that he
loved. Like his
father, he was avid photographer and always had a camera ready to take pictures.
He also ensured that we went to Disney World and would drive there
so we could stop at places like Boone Hall Plantation in South
Carolina, Sea World, St. Augustine and Daytona in Florida. After he
retired he decided that he wanted to see "The West" and so he packed
up mom in his Caddy and drove to South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.
The next trip west meandered further south through Tennessee,
Missouri and Oklahoma, eventually stopping to turn around somewhere
in the Four Corners. He took hundreds of pictures that fill dozens
of photo albums.
He also loved cars and while he may
not have had the most expensive car on the market - he took care of
the ones he had. His first was 47 Chevrolet that belonged to his
mother. His second was a 59 Chevy, purchased
about the time of his wedding. In 1968 he purchased a Chevy Caprice
and in 1979 he purchased an Oldsmobile which replaced the 59 which,
at 20 years old, had finally turned into an expense. In 1985
he turned the Caprice over to my sister and bought another
Oldsmobile for my mother. I fell heir to a '68 ChevelleIn 1992, dad finally bought a Cadillac and
sold the 79 Olds. In 94, mom's 85 Olds began to given him trouble so
he sold that as well and bought her a Buick. Every last one of his
cars was some shade of Blue - except for the Buick - which was tan.
When mom passed away in 2003, he contemplated selling it as well,
but couldn't bring himself to. He was driving it 2005 when the
accident which ultimately cost him his life occurred. I have photos
of all his cars. All but that one.
1854
- High School 1959
1989
2001
In the production of "Maryland My Maryland" in 1955 when he met my
mother.
 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
1 - Dad
(making faces of course) with his two movie-star-look-alike older
brothers - Clint on the left and Charlie in his Navy uniform on the
right (my Uncle Clint was a hunk!) 2 - A picture he had taken while in the
army 3 - age 12 4 - At age two with his older brother Clint 5 -
the 47 Chevy 6 - the 59 Chevy parked at 505 41st Street 7 - the 68 Chevy (this is the tank I
learned to drive on) 8 - the '79 Olds 9 - mom's '85 Olds and the '92
Caddy 10 - the '68 Chevelle - it has belonged to my grandmother and I
drove it until 2000
|