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Born July 5, 1923, in Washington, D.C., the son of the late Admiral John Howard and Helen Smith Hoover, Mr. Hoover attended schools in Coronado, Calif., Norfolk, Va. and Washington, D.C. and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1944 as part of the Class of 1945.

Capt. Hoover enlisted in the Naval Reserve and served aboard the minesweeper USS Gamble on the West Coast before attending the Naval Academy at age 17 in 1941. During World War II, he saw combat as a Turret Officer and Asst. Navigator aboard the USS Vincennes, a light cruiser with the Pacific Fleet, where his father, then Vice Admiral, commanded the forward area.

He was designated naval aviator in 1947 and served in a number of fighter and attack squadrons aboard Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers, including command of Attack Squadron 56. He graduated from the Naval Test Pilot School, Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River in the early Class 4, and served as a carrier branch test pilot from 1950 to 1952. Later, he was instrumental in developing air combat tactics and precision bombing techniques.

At the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics, he served as the Grumman Class Desk Officer and was instrumental in the development of jet advanced training aircraft and ground level pilot ejection systems. Later he served in the War Plans Division for the Chief of Naval Operations.

During the Vietnam War, he served as navigator and executive officer of the attack carrier, Coral Sea, for two consecutive tours of duty and was awarded the Bronze Star. Later, as Director of Training, Naval Air Advanced Training Command, he accompanied the Chief on an extended tour of carriers and bases to assess performance of new pilots. He commanded the USS Austin in the Atlantic Fleet, and in 1968, after 25 years of service, he retired at the rank of Captain.

Subsequently he worked for Grumman Aerospace Corporation in New York for 20 years as program manager on the Lunar Module, Space Shuttle and other programs. He retired in 1988.

Surviving are his wife, Carolyn Theresa Murphy Hoover, whom he married in June 1956 in La Jolla, Calif.; three sons, John Hoover of Portland, Ore., Howard Hoover of Annapolis and Patrick Hoover of Commack, N.Y.; two daughters, Sally Casale of Raleigh, N.C. and Jennifer Drake of Naples, Fla.; and 13 grandchildren.

An open letter to the Hoover Family on the passing of Capt Bill

Dear Carolyn and Family,

Thank you for including us in the ceremonies at the Naval Academy yesterday. We heard the USN side of the story yesterday, and as a retired CDR, USCG the significance of CAPT Hoover vs. Capt Hoover is not lost on me, but as his catboat friends, we knew Bill in the latter venue. Those of us who sailed with him on the Chesapeake Bay for the last 15 years got to know him on a more personal level, because you see, when he wasn’t with you or with the USN, he was with us.

On that note, and quite simply we will remember Capt Bill as a man with a smile on his face, a song in his heart, room in his cockpit for all his friends and a Myers and Tonic with cigar for any and all takers.

Beyond that, his contributions to the local association were many. To name a few, he:

- believed that participation and camaraderie were the goals of the CCBA;

- believed in racing as an important part of individual self improvement;

- believed a workable racing handicap was key to full participation of all catboat designs;

- supported the annual cruise regime wherever it took us;

- marketed the CCBA to the national CBA and acted as liaison between the groups; and

- promoted catboats and the CCBA locally at every opportunity.

On a personal level, he:

- always shared whatever he had – food/drink/knowledge/facilities;

- believed in his catboat as a self-contained entity;

- believed in eating well when afloat;

- believed in drinking right and smoking right (legal substances of course);

- joined every raft-up, but preferred his own hook overnight;

- always sailed under all conditions with proper precautions and preparation;

- always carried the correct gear and back-up for the unexpected; and

- was a great source of nautical and technical knowledge, not by reading but by doing.

He was one of the best catboat sailors I have had the pleasure to be around, because he was one with his vessel, making it look easy and effortless. His incredible sailing instincts along with a little luck and surely some divine providence kept him out of trouble in those times I have seen him tempt fate, yet in his words: “Live to sail another day.” Bill always made everyone feel welcome and looked for the good in every individual, even under adverse circumstances. If given the choice, Capt Bill would smooth things over, move the process along and keep the group together and focused. It will be a long time before we see another sailor of Bill’s quality come along.

On behalf of the Chesapeake Catboat Association, we his friends thank Bill for all he’s done and meant to us, and more importantly, we thank you for sharing him with us.

Marc Cruder, on behalf of the Chesapeake Catboat Association – December 2005

Maynard Lowery and Pyewacket

by Steve Flesner

After our visit to Maynard Lowery’s boat shop last January, Butch Miller and I made plans to go back to see his progress on the then unnamed Fenwick Williams 16. This time we were accompanied by Denise and Lois, our first mates with the promise of lunch, so in mid March we headed for Tilghman Island, a 2 ½ hour drive from our home on St. Leonard Creek in Southern Maryland. We found Maynard and Doug in the garage working on an outboard. I figured a lot of progress had been made because all the wood that he stored in his garage was gone except for the mast that was awaiting final sanding before varnish. Along the back wall of the garage were the patterns and drawings used during the initial construction stage. Once in the shop we found the hull completed, fully decked, benches and offset centerboard trunk installed, a nicely curved tiller and the barn door rudder undergoing final installation of the outboard bracket. Maynard uses a stainless steel “crab” pedestal on the foredeck to attach the boom rather than a gooseneck on the mast. The boom was almost finished awaiting a few final wood fittings for reef lines. The gaff was fitted with traditional gaff jaws using a wooden tongue and pivot bolt along with the metal tang as shown on pg 7 of “The Catboat and How to Sail Her”. Maynard walked us through the constructions process before we went to lunch at Harrison’s Crab House….where it seems everyone knows “Mr. Lowery!"

Completion was scheduled for early May and sure enough on April 31st Maynard called to tell me the boat was ready to be launched on May 2nd at the Severn Marine boat yard which is right next to Maynard’s original boat shop. I cleared my calendar…being retired, that’s easy, and headed for Tilghman Island for some final photos. You can imagine my anticipation as I rounded the corner at the boat yard and saw the finished product sitting on a trailer under sail! Wow! Sweet was all I could say! Marty Wells and Carol Sargeant, the new owners were there surrounded by a dozen or so folks who had come down to see Maynard’s latest catboat. I wore my CBA Tee shirt from the Mystic meeting and told them I had was the official “Catboat Association” photographer! Maynard was a bit stressed out with all the activity…seems the day before, Department of Natural Resources had given him a problem during registration of the boat, then insurance had to be taken out along with final rigging, ballast and a slew of other odds and ends that at 88, just seem rather stressful. Oh, on top of all this, it was Doug, his son’s birthday...a chipper 59! A crew was busy transferring about 200 lbs of lead ballast off the back of a pickup truck to Doug who placed it under the cockpit benches…additional ballast would be loaded once she was launched. Since this was a special occasion, Maynard’s “lady friends” were also on hand…Greta, his dachshund and constant companion for 15 years and the infamous “Miss. Valerie” for whom he named his 15‘ 2” Wittholtz designed catboat after. Marty and Carol had named their boat Pyewacket…something about Kim Novak and the “Bell, Book and Candle”. Maynard said her name had been painted on the transom the day before by a local artist! Beautiful gold lettering against the varnished transom really looked nice. I checked out every nook and cranny of Pyewacket and had one thought…I wish she were going home with me! Unlike most of Maynard’s catboats, this one was a bit more special. She was not finished in the traditional workboat white like the others he built, but rather in a “catboat yacht finish”! There was a lot of bright work. The stainless strip along the rub rail and other stainless fittings instead of bronze seemed to update the boats appearance, yet balanced by the use of traditional belaying pins instead of cleats. The tiller had some nice spiral hitching at the grab point. A really unique touch was the green “whale strake” along the shear plank matched to the green boot top stripe. When I looked closely at Pyewacket everything I saw was “functional” and that about sums up how Maynard builds boats.

The sail (206 sq ft) that C. Dudley Boycott built had some interesting features, rather than using the traditional methods of seizing the mast hoops to grommets along the luff, there were two luff cringles in the sail per mast hoop with a line running down the luff thru the top cringle passing on the inside of the mast hoop and then thru the bottom cringle possibly acting as a downhaul when needed….rather unusual but also pretty neat.

Unfortunately, it looked like launch time would be delayed until late afternoon and I had a commitment back home to make so I was unable to see her hit the water. Mollie Boyle sent me a CD with the pictures she had taken of the launch and dock departure. Carol and Marty later sent me a note saying they were thrilled with the sail home. Someone asked Maynard if he was going to build another catboat and he replied..”I’m a bit tired. This one did me in so I think I’ll just rest a while”. I must admit as I drove home, I was a bit down thinking that possibly this might be Maynard’s last catboat, but then I remembered what he told me months ago…”building boats gives you a good reason to get up and keep going.”

Will Maynard sit around all Summer…I sort of doubt it, a catbird told me he is keeping Miss Valerie at Miss Valerie’s dock on Walnut Cove and plans to give her sailing lessons...pretty sneaky! And just so he has that reason to get up in the morning, he plans on building a few skiffs over the Summer….keep on going Maynard!