Samuel J. Bonette – Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army

TOWN OF NIAGARA, New York

Samuel J. Bonette, 85, who served for 26 years in the U.S. Army and also worked as an accountant and a professor, died Monday (Feb. 25, 2002) in Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center after a long illness.

Bonette was born in Cuylerville, New York, and graduated from Niagara Falls High School. He earned a bachelor of business administration degree in accounting from Niagara University in 1939. He earned a master’s degree in financial management from George Washington University in 1964, and a doctorate in business administration from American University in 1973.

Bonette retired from the Army in 1968 as a Lieutenant Colonel. During his career, he was in the South Pacific during World War II and also served in the Korean War. He also was posted in Okinawa, in Germany and at the Pentagon. He received the Commendation Ribbon with medal pendant, the Army Commendation Medal and the Legion of Merit.

Bonette was an Executive Officer in the Operations and Maintenance Coordination Office of the General Staff at the Pentagon from 1962 to 1965. He was Assistant Chief of the Advisory Group for the South Korean First Army in 1965 and Executive Officer of the Army Materiel Command in Washington in 1966.

After leaving the Army, Bonette worked in the Washington, D.C., area with accounting firms, as a management consultant and finally as a business management instructor at Shenandoah University and George Washington University.

He retired in 1981 as an accounting professor at Northern Virginia Community College. After retirement, he moved to Grand Island and then to the Town of Niagara last month.

Survivors include his wife of 21 years, Elizabeth; a son, Michael of Springfield, Virginia; a stepson, David Burnham of Mount Prospect, Illinois; a daughter, Barbara Grusso of Stratford; two sisters, Josephine Bianco of Rochester and Ida Agnello of Webster; four grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

A memorial Mass will be offered at 10:30 a.m. Monday in St. Mary of the Cataract Catholic Church, 459 Fourth St., Niagara Falls. Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard