July 28, 1962

TOKYO (S&S) — More than 800 persons - including 400 Japanese and U.S. Boy Scouts and Little League players - paid tribute to the late Lt. Col. Bernard Spiro Wednesday as the Grant Heights recreation field was named in his honor.

The 42-year-old Air Force officer died of a heart attack last Friday while being admitted to Tachikawa AB hospital.

Spiro had long been active in both scouting and Little League activities in the U.S. and Japan. During the two years he has been in Japan, he served as commissioner of the Little League at the Grant Heights housing area near Tokyo.

At the ceremonies honoring Spiro Wednesday a general order was read officially naming “Spiro Field.” Four youngsters representing the Little League and Boy Scouts then unveiled a signboard for the field. The boys were Peter Wetzel, 11, and Derrick Okita, 9, both of Grant heights, who represented the Little League, Randy Thames, 12, Momote Village, representing the Boy Scouts of America, and Makoto Suzuki, 12, Mitaka City, representing the Japanese Boy Scouts.

Spiro was special projects officer for the office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, U.S. Forces Japan. Col. S. N. Black, outgoing Far East director of Little League baseball, Japan, represented Lt. Gen. Jacob E. Smart, Fifth Air Force, and U.S. Forces Japan commander, at the ceremony.

Black, a close associate of Spiro, used the words of Abraham Lincoln and said, “Little that we say here will be long remembered, but what Bernie Spiro has done here will live forever.” Present at the ceremony were his widow, Adrienne, a daughter, Jo Anne, 14, and a son. Steven, 13.

Also, Brig. Gen. Thomas R. Ford, Kanto Base Command commander; Col. Harold F. Funsch, of Fifth Air Force and Far East director of Little League baseball; Chaplain (Col.) R. M. Terry, of Fifth Air Force, Col. J. D. Hand, U.S. Forces Japan, and Lt. Col. E. E. Green, Grant Heights housing area executive officer.