The Highty-Tighty Alumni Inc. recently honored its former president, Bertram Y. “Bert” Kinzey III, with the title president emeritus.

Kinzey, who graduated from the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets in 1968 with a degree in business administration from the Pamplin College of Business, served as the board’s president for nine years. He stepped down in October.

This is only the second time the alumni group, founded in 1975 to support the Corps of Cadets’ regimental band, has awarded the emeritus title. The first recipient was the late Charles O. Cornelison, who served as the board’s first president for 27 years.

"Bert Kinzey has, for the past nine years, been intensely involved on and off campus in the day-to day events of leading the Highty-Tighty Alumni Inc. His ideas, enthusiasm, and leadership helped the current band grow from around 100 members each year to the goal of 150 members,” said Chuck Rowell, the current board president who graduated from the Corps of Cadets in 1971 with a degree in management from the Pamplin College of Business.

Kinzey served as an air defense officer in the U.S. Army, then worked for the U.S. Department of Defense as a subject-matter expert in military airpower. 

While there, he started his own company that produced books on military aircraft. Between 1978 and 2004, he produced 113 published titles, most of which he wrote himself. 

Kinzey is retired but remains active with the corps and the Highty-Tighties.

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