Interment: Greenwood Memorial Park, Renton, WA

The son of Don and Dorothy Custer, Bert Harris Custer was born in Seattle, WA and raised in Renton, WA in an extended, blended family of eight brothers and sisters and their parents and loving stepparents, Rose Custer and Lefty Grabner. In grade school, Bert demonstrated an early aptitude for athletics and academics and formed lifelong friendships among his schoolmates, graduating from Renton High School in 1955. 

Bert matriculated at the University of Washington in downtown Seattle and spent two years as a Husky before entering West Point as a member of the Class of 1961, assigned to Company G-1.

As a cadet, Bert’s innate intelligence, athletic ability and two years of undergraduate study at UW readily overcame the academic and physical fitness challenges of West Point. However, as one who viewed the cadet disciplinary system and the Tactical Department with resigned amusement, he periodically ran afoul of cadet regulations and ultimately self-identified as the First Captain of the Area Squad, where he logged many hours, up to and including First Class year. But his enduring dry wit and thoughtful nature earned him a reputation as a good friend to all those who served with him at West Point, from Beast Barracks through graduation. 

Bert also claimed a distant kinship to an earlier graduate, one George Armstrong Custer, Class of 1861. Bert’s Howitzer entry noted that fact and accurately predicted that “his humor and industry will make him a credit to his chosen branch.” 

On active duty Bert distinguished himself as an exemplary Airborne and Ranger qualified Infantry officer, initially as a platoon leader in the 28th Infantry, later as aide to Brigadier General Jeff Irvin, the Chief of Staff, VII Corps in Stuttgart. The Irvins treated Bert like a member of their family, and Bert continued to serve as aide de camp when Brigadier General Irvin was made the Deputy Commanding General of the Army Training Center at Fort Jackson, SC. There, Bert became an avid tennis player and a role model for the general’s oldest son, Ross. Bert took it upon himself to provide a great deal of “real” information about life at the Academy to Ross who, despite this, decided to follow his father and Bert into West Point as a member of the Class of 1968. 

After a tour as a MACV advisor in Vietnam, Bert got orders to be one of the few Infantry officers to attend the 1966-67 Armor Officer Advanced Course at Fort Knox, KY. But, en route to Fort Knox, Bert took leave in his hometown of Renton to visit friends and family and, as he explained it, “to buy a new pair of tennis shoes” from a high school classmate’s sporting goods store. A casual conversation with that old friend led to the renewal of another friendship dating back to Bert’s childhood in Renton, with a newly single and ever beautiful friend from grade school through high school, Shirley Bakken. Bert was smitten. So was Shirley. In a matter of weeks, they married, applied for quarters at Fort Knox, and began a loving relationship (becoming known to many as “Shirt and Burley”) that flourished for nearly half a century, until Bert’s untimely death.

In Kentucky, Bert honed his New York Times crossword puzzle skills (in ink!) in the back row of the mandatory basic algebra class required for qualification as a NWEO (nuclear weapons employment officer). After Fort Knox, Bert, Shirley, and Shirley’s son Derek Smith relocated to the Hudson Valley, where Bert pursued his M.A. in math at RPI, followed by three years in the Math Department at West Point. During that time Bert renewed old friendships with classmates and colleagues at West Point and on the East Coast, and Shirley made a seamless transition to becoming a fully qualified Army wife, having moved the requisite three times in four years. For Bert, Shirley, and Derek, living and working at West Point was a major highlight of 25 years of active service. 

After leaving West Point as a major, Bert served in the G-3 shop of the Big Red One and attended Command and General Staff College. At Fort Leavenworth, KS, Bert and Shirley enjoyed a reunion with many friends who were Math Department faculty alumni. In 1980 Bert assumed command of the 2-60th Infantry at Fort Lewis, WA, not many miles from where he had entered the service nearly a quarter of a century earlier. 

Upon retiring as a colonel in 1986, Bert and Shirley settled in Renton, back home again among friends and family members and near a great place to buy tennis shoes. Bert took great pride in the achievements of Derek, who graduated from Juilliard and became an award-winning actor and affiliate of the Washington, DC Shakespeare Theater Company, with featured roles in stage, film, and TV productions nationwide, including several years on Broadway and in the national touring company of The Lion King as Scar.

Bert continued to teach math and play tennis—and with Shirley greatly enjoyed the role of actively grandparenting Derek’s daughter and the apple of Bert’s eye, Savannah “Banana,” born in 1986, who lived nearby with her mother. As doting grandparents, Bert and Shirley watched Savannah evolve from feisty toddler to brilliant young woman, now a psychologist in southern California with a special interest in working with children.

Bert died following a long and difficult battle with cancer. He is truly missed by his many friends and loved ones and will always have a place in their hearts.