Dean Dziedzic

Glenn and I were both on the THS Cross-Country team - he finished in front and I was always near last. A few years after graduation, we met again while competing in a road race at Nonnewaug High School (I had become a fairly good runner at that point) and decided to train together. He was a brutal couch but we trained hard together. We also directed the Torrington Road Race together one year. It was at the New Hartford Hill challenge that he met Beth Farmer, his future wife. It was a whirlwind courtship and they were married within months. She convinced him to join the military, a job he loved. After he joined the service, he would show up in Torrington every once in a while calling to ask if I was interested in going for an "easy" run. Translated this meant a brutally long run with lots of hills - believe it or not, they were always fun.

In October of 2002, I received a call from his sister-in-law saying the he contracted something while serving in Turkey causing his organs to fail and that they didn't expect him to survive. I couldn't bring myself to believe it was true.   The next day I received another call saying that he had died.

After his death, I had the privilege of meeting his son David, who was also in the military, when David remembered his father in a speech at a Golden T award ceremony - what a great kid.

A few things you may not know:

- He was a pinball wizard using the letters GOW and all of the kids at the archades knew about GOW.  He once told me that he had been playing a pinball machine for 45 mintutes on the first ball.  I watched him play Missile Command for half an hour without any sign of loosing - he finally just walked away rather than play all day.'

- When he returned to running after high school, he ran at the front then gradually fell back.  With each subsequent race he got stronger until he could eventually stay at the front and win races.  Early on, we ran a race in Darien with the temperatures around 100 degrees.  Before the race, we had a nice chat with a runner from New York.  Glenn  led the race at a blistering pace at the start then dropped back.  The New York runner approached me after the race complain about how fast "your friend was running".  I just laughed it off.

- Around 1980, he finished in the top 20 in the Litchfield Hills Road Race, beating the winner of the Ocean State Marathon that year.

Below is his obituary with more information on a Glenn and his distinguished career:

"Master Sergeant Glenn Russell Warder, 45, of Louisville, passed away Tuesday, October 22, 2002, at Norton Hospital after a brief illness. He was a native of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, but spent his formative years in Torrington, CT. He excelled in long distance running as a youth and remained an avid runner. He later became a US citizen and was a graduate of the University of Connecticut. Glenn joined the US Army in 1982 and served for 20 years throughout the US and the world. MSG Warder was a member of the NCOA Club at Ft. Knox and AUSA. MSG Warder was awarded the Army Commendation Award, Army Achievement Medal, Good Conduct Medal, the NATO Service Medal, the Army Expedition Medal and the Legion of Merit, the highest medal awarded during peacetime. He was a distinguished honor graduate of the Basic NCO Academy, Drill Sergeant Academy, Master Fitness School in Ft. Benjamin Harrison, IN and First Sergeant Course and Air Assault School in Ft. Campbell, KY. MSG Warder had recently been accepted into the "Troops to Teachers" program. He was frocked as a First Sergeant of A/2-46th Infantry at Ft. Knox prior to his recent assignment at NATO headquarters Joint Services Command Southeast in Izmir, Turkey. Glenn was preceded in passing by his father, Donald W. Warder. He is survived by his wife of 21 years, Elisabeth Anne (Farmer) Warder; son, David Warder; mother, Lilla Warder; and brothers, Graham and Gary Warder. "