Andrew M. “Andy” Doty was born on October 12, 1925 in Stillwater, NY and moved with his family to Hudson Falls while in elementary school. He lettered in four varsity sports and was named an All-Conference halfback after the 1943 championship season. He graduated from high school as President of the class of 1944 and entered the Army Air Corps (now the Air Force) in January of that year.
After finishing aerial gunnery school at Harlingen, TX, Andy became a tailgunner on a B-29 bomber in World War II and flew on 21 bombing missions from the island of Guam to the Japanese homeland. His crew parachuted into the sea on its fifteenth mission and spent the night in their life vests or one-man rafts. Three of the men failed to survive.
After the war the GI Bill of Rights enabled Andy to attend St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. He won the university award for college journalism, was elected to the senior honor society and graduated in the class of 1950. He became a reporter for the Watertown Daily Times that year and married the former Eleanor Baker of Hudson Falls.
In 1952 he began a career at three universities: Johns Hopkins, the University of Michigan, and Stanford. He became Director of Community Relations at Stanford in 1972 and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1993. He received Palo Alto’s “Outstanding Professional” award in 1980 and was cited for a “Lifetime of Achievement” by the city’s senior center upon his retirement.
Andy is the author of a book, “Backwards into Battle, A Tailgunner’s Journey in World War II.” He and Eleanor reside in a retirement community on the Stanford campus. They are the parents of three daughters: Susan of Boulder, CO; Ann of Palo Alto, CA; and Nancy, also of Boulder. They have six grandchildren in those communities. ‘