Lance Corporal Christopher J. Dyer, a 2004 graduate of Princeton High School (Cincinatti, Ohio) was killed in Iraq on August 3. 2005, while a member of 1st squad, 3rd platoon, Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines.
In April of 2006 the Dyer family announced the scholarship in their son's memory and worked closely with the Princeton Scholarship Fund Board to develop criteria that includes "exceptional scholarship, character, leadership and service through military commitment, community outreach, and/or other superior school participation and leadership."
John and Kathy Dyer and their daughters Sarah and Laura, presented the inaugural Lance Corporal Christopher J. Dyer Scholarship to Andrew Altman of Springdale, Ohio in May of 2006. The amount of this generous scholarship is $10,000 per year for four years.
Donations can be made to the Princeton City Schools. Please include a note that it is for the Christopher J. Dyer Scholarship Fund.
Princeton City Schools
Attn: Communication Director, Tom O'Neill
25 W Sharon Ave
Cincinnati, OH 45246
For additional information, email the Princeton City Schools Communication Director, Tom O'Neill at toneill@princeton.k12.oh.us.
Andrew Altman, 2006 Scholarship Recipient
Dyer and Altman Family Photo
About Chris
From the start, camouflage was the color of Chris' future. In latchkey programs at Evendale Elementary school, he was the little boy who played with GI Joes. By 11, Chris and his best friend, Mike Hertlein, would stock up on flea-market military garb and deploy themselves on missions throughout the neighborhood.
Temporarily distracted by high school studies and female classmates, Chris made a sober pact with himself in his senior year to join the Marine Reserve right after graduation. Friends and family say that commitment satisfied a hunger Chris had had all his life: The chance to excel at something, and to find out, and live out, his purpose in life.
Before he left for Iraq in March 2005, Chris and his father, John Dyer, met in Las Vegas for what would be their last reunion. "I couldn't be happier with where I am in my life than where I am right now," he told his dad. It was his way of saying he had no regrets.
In Iraq, Chris was a Marine's Marine, a Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) gunner on four-man "fire teams." He carried 90 pounds of artillery, could set off 800 rounds of weapon-fire per minute and watched his buddies' backs on building-by-building searches.
He survived the dangerous foot missions, but was killed with 13 other Marines on Aug. 3, when the amphibious assault vehicle they were riding in was hit by a roadside bomb.
"To some extent, it seemed like his life to that point was getting prepared for something, and then he had crystallized into somebody with such a bright future," his father said in his Evendale home, surrounded by pictures of Chris and boxes of letters from friends and strangers. "It's hard not to have watched how that future played itself out."
Chris planned to enter Ohio State this January. In his memory, his family has donated his Marine death benefit and life insurance to the Princeton Scholarship Fund.
Photos of Chris in Iraq:
