Colonel B.B. Albert ’49, Continues Relationship with RC for over 50 Years

Colonel Benjamin B. Albert's '49 relationship with Roanoke College has lasted over 50 years and has taken him around the world. Albert, a veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, has served his country everywhere from Brazil to the Philippines, and Japan to Iran.

"My degree from Roanoke College has taken me all these places," Albert says. At every crossroad of his military career, Albert utilized his degree in economics from RC to advance.

Albert enlisted in the Navy in January 1943 at the age of 18. During World War II, he served on the USS Milwaukee, which sailed from Brazil to Africa looking for German submarines, one of which torpedoed and sank the ship next to his. He went to Murmansk, Russia in February 1944 to transfer the USS Milwaukee to the Russian navy when it became the Russian Cruiser Murmansk. Albert and 60 other sailors served as back up during D-Day operation. "It would be our responsibility to go in and pick up the survivors at Normandy if things went bad."

He also participated in the shelling of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, where he suffered an injury. After being discharged from the Navy in March 1946, at the recommendation of a friend he approached then RC president, Charlie Smith, about enrolling at Roanoke. Smith guaranteed him admission and Albert graduated three years later. His favorite memories at Roanoke involve the times spent with his Pi Kappa Phi fraternity brothers. "We had a great fraternity and some great people," he says.

After graduation, Albert and his roommate decided to join the Air Force but couldn't because of his war injury. He briefly went to law school at Washington & Lee, only to be called up in the Army Reserves, which he had joined "not thinking we'd get involved in another war."

Albert, armed with his degree from RC, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the military police corps during the Korean War. He then joined the regular Army and went to artillery school, jump school, and ordinance school. The Army then gave him the chance to further his education and he was able to use his economics degree from Roanoke to earn an MBA from Syracuse University in only 18 months.

He was then stationed in Iran, commanded a maintenance battalion in Vietnam during the war, and later served on the Military Advisory Group in the Philippines. While there, his daughter Jane Albert Norris attended Roanoke and graduated in the class of 1974.

Albert retired from the Army after 30 years in 1979. He is now a member of the Society of 1842, an Associate of the College, and chair of the Honor Guard.

He often attends alumni events and believes that his degree from Roanoke helped him every step of the way in his varied career. That belief is the motivation for his continued support of the College with resources of time, leadership, annual giving and a bequest. Albert sums up his feelings saying "I received a good education and I've had a love affair with Roanoke College ever since."