I am saddened to report the death of our friend, Dr. Frank Turnage, former Executive Director of the Germanna Foundation and serving as Trustee Emeritus at the time of his death. Frank, whose roots go back to colonial North Carolina and Virginia, had a long and distinguished career in the Virginia Community College System and […]
John O. Marsh, Jr. (1926-2019), Germanna Descendant
The Germanna family recently lost a proud descendant of Germanna’s Second Colony Wieland / Wayland family, John O. “Jack” Marsh, Jr., one of the most powerful but least known men in Washington in the 1970s and 1980s. He was an Army officer, lawyer, Virginia congressman, adviser to Presidents and the longest-serving Secretary of the Army. […]
Germanna in Memoriam
The Germanna Foundation extends condolences to family members of people in our Germanna community who passed away recently: Horst Schneider The board received with regret news of the death of Trustee Emeritus Horst Schneider of Siegen Kaan-Marienbborn on 3 October 2018. Horst succeeded his good friend Heinz Prinz on the Germanna board when Heinz died […]
In Memorium: William “Bill” Fishback Sr.
Bill Fishback descends from the Germanna colonists Johannes and Agnes (Haeger) Fischbach [Fishback]; the Rev. Henrich & Anna Catharina (Friesenhagen) Haeger; Johan Jost & Maria Cathrina (Otterbach) Mertin [Martin]. He is a descendant of the “Fleetwood” Fishbacks (a colonial home in Fauquier County visited by attendees of the annual Germanna Foundation conference and reunion). No one in […]
Willie Martin, 1928-2016
Willie Martin, past president of the Germanna Foundation, passed away on August 23rd. A direct descendant of John Joseph Martin through his maternal Clarke family of Stevensburg in Culpeper County, Willie was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Germanna Foundation on November 5, 1957 (Willie’s father, T.I. Martin, mayor of Culpeper, was elected to […]
Trustee Jörg Becker, 1955-2016
The Germanna Foundation announces with regret the death of trustee Jörg Becker of Siegen-Eisern, Germany on 25 July following a courageous battle with cancer. Hundreds of Germanna members knew Jörg from having enjoyed the walking tour he led each year of his ancestral village of Eisern on one of the Germany trips, or from his […]
Memorial Day
Over this Memorial Day 2016 weekend, please take time to remember those who have fallen while serving our nation in uniform. Say a silent prayer for their families. Participate in a community remembrance service. Share their stories so that others will understand what freedom, patriotism and service really mean.
Remembering Pearl Harbor and Germanna’s Own
Pearl Harbor Day is a time of remembrance for Americans. At 7:55 and 42 seconds, on the morning of December 7th, 1941, thousands of unsuspecting Americans were killed in a surprise attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. It was the bloodiest foreign attack on U.S. soil in the modern war era, until […]
D-Day and Germanna
Today, Americans think of the greatest beaches in the world: Omaha, Utah, Juno, Gold, and Sword. Seventy years ago today, Americans and their allies hit the beaches to liberate a continent from the evil of National Socialism. Thanks to the outpouring of Germanna Foundation supporters who asked that the name of their service man or […]
Angus McDonald Green
Angus McDonald Green, a key figure in Piedmont publishing circles, community leader, and World War II veteran who served under Patton died in March 2012. One of seven children in a publishing family, Green learned the printing business from childhood with his siblings and absorbed a love of history at his family home Greenwood, where […]
Fritz Bottenberg, 1935-2011
Fritz Bottenberg August 8, 1935 – January 30, 2011 The Germanna community was saddened by news of the death of Fritz Bottenberg, a Rector descendant from Trupbach and strong friend of the Germanna Foundation, after a long battle with cancer. He was buried in the nearby village of Seelbach. Each June since 2003, when the […]
James E. Martin (1923-2011), Germanna Trustee Emeritus
James E. Martin, 88, of Bryson City, North Carolina, died December 11, 2011. He was born January 17, 1923 in Stevensburg, Virginia to the late Edgar Payne and Agnes Siebert Martin. In addition to his parents he was preceded in death by a sister, Thelma M. Hawkins and a nephew, Kenneth Brown. He was a […]
