Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 9, 1990 TAG: 9006090039
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Col. Norman Bissell, a 26-year U.S. Army veteran who specialized in army aviation, will assume his duties July 1 and be paid $68,800 a year. He replaces Col. William Dabney, who will retire from the Marines at the end of this month.
Since 1907, VMI's commandant of cadets has been an officer in the armed forces assigned to the Lexington school as part of a regular tour of duty. Often, the officers were transferred before their assignments were complete - sometimes as soon as six months into the job, spokesman Tom Joynes said.
A succession of VMI superintendents have called for hiring a permanent commandant. But it took 83 years of assigned active-duty officers before Maj. Gen. John Knapp, the current superintendent, made it happen. Before 1907, the commandant's responsibilities were split between the corps and teaching.
Bissell currently is program manager for the Sikorsky Aircraft Light Helicopter Experimental Program in Connecticut, a job he took after retiring from the military three years ago.
Bissell graduated from VMI in 1961 with a degree in history and later earned a master's degree from the University of Missouri. He was the Army's Senior Fellow at Harvard University in 1985-86.
A Vietnam veteran, Bissell was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for Heroism in Vietnam. Other decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Bronze Star Medal, the Air Medal for Heroism with 24 oak-leaf clusters and the Purple Heart.
by CNB