Taylor Roby Pipes Sept. 9, 1916-Sept. 20, 2003 LA GRANDE -

 Taylor "Roby" Pipes, 87, of La Grande, died Saturday, Sept. 20, 2003 at his home. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Oct. 24, at the First Christian Church in La Grande. A gathering for friends who wish to visit with the family or who were not able to attend the service will be held at 3:30 p.m., Oct. 24, at the Grande Ronde Retirement Center. Mr. Pipes was born on Sept. 9, 1916, at the Pipes family home near Fayette, Mo. As a young man in Arvada, Colo., he enjoyed going with his dad who was buying and shipping dairy cattle to California. In his spare time he enjoyed playing baseball, ice and roller skating, fishing and swimming. He quit high school near the end of the Depression, working many days for a place to sleep and eat. Fifty-cent-per-day wages were considered a gift! After his parents divorced when he was 19, he made his own way in life, spending much time at Filer, Idaho. 

On July 4, 1940, he married Anita Hermann at Weiser, Idaho. He always said "he gave up his independence on Independence Day, on Leap Year." On Dec. 18, 1943, he enlisted in the Army and served with the 743rd Railroad Operating Battalion, Company C-European Theater. He served mostly in Belgium keeping supplies going through for the ground troops. A perfectionist, he was very mechanical and skilled with his hands. After he was honorably discharged as a Captain, he joined the Army Reserves and was discharged in 1963. In 1946 he returned to La Grande and went to work for Union Pacific Railroad. When the yard office closed in La Grande, Yardmaster Pipes went on the road as a brakeman on the Wallowa Branch line and later worked on the main line between Hinkle, La Grande and Nampa. He retired in 1977 as a conductor. 

He loved to fish, pheasant hunt, camp, to putter around in his shop and to visit people. In 1984 he had a lemon-size brain tumor removed and was fully recovered after three months. He and his wife then went on a European trip to visit their daughter's family in England, and then on to Belgium to revisit World War II sites and to renew foreign friendships made during the war. In 1997 he suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke following the removal of a second brain tumor. Intensive therapy and tenacity helped him to regain his ability to walk, read, write and speak small sentences. After living in their own home on Washington Avenue for 50 years, the Pipes moved to the Grande Ronde Retirement Center in 2001. In 2002, he had a third brain tumor removed. 

Even after suffering further setbacks, he was committed to regain and retain his health. He could be seen walking around various parts of town, carrying his cane like a "country gentleman," only using it for safety purposes when going up or down curbs or crossing rough spots. 

Survivors include his wife, Anita Pipes of La Grande; daughter, Janice Kerns and her husband, Tim, and daughter, Jean Conklin and her husband, David; four grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; a sister, Helen Burt of Arlington, Wash.; and other relatives and friends. A brother, David Pipes preceded him in death. Memorial contributions may be made to the GRH Hospice or a charity of choice through Daniels Chapel of the Valley, 1502 7th Street, La Grande, OR 97850

Great list from Wikipedia page for the Military Railway Service units - 1st 2nd and 3rd MRS  
 

List of Railway Grand Divisions and their sponsors
Unit      Sponsor     Date of Activation
701st     New York Central Railroad     01/11/1943
702nd     Union Pacific Railroad     10/15/1942
703rd     Atlantic Coast Line Railroad     08/01/1943
704th     Great Northern Railway     11/30/1942
705th     Southern Pacific Lines     05/19/1943
706th     Pennsylvania Railroad     08/06/1943
707th     Southern Railway     06/10/1943
708th     Baltimore and Ohio Railroad     04/06/1943
709th     Association of American Railroads     03/15/1944
710th     Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway     12/14/1943
774th     None (Organized in Italy)     1944
 

List of Railway Operating Battalions
Unit     Sponsor     Date of Activation
711th     Training Battalion. Built and maintained the 50 mile Claiborne-Polk Military Railroad     05/01/1941
712th     Reading Railroad     10/25/1942
713th     Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway     04/15/1942
714th     Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway     10/31/1942
715th     Illinois Central Railroad     10/31/1942
716th     Southern Pacific Lines     12/21/1943
717th     Pennsylvania Railroad     12/01/1943
718th     Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway     12/14/1943
719th     Texas and New Orleans Railroad     09/01/1943
720th     Chicago and North Western Railway     08/26/1943
721st     New York Central Railroad     04/14/1943
722nd     Seaboard Air Line Railroad     12/14/1943
723rd     Union Pacific Railroad     12/28/1943
724th     Pennsylvania Railroad     12/28/1943
725th     Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad     02/17/1943
726th     Wabash Railroad     06/26/1943
727th     Southern Railway     03/15/1942
728th     Louisville and Nashville Railroad     01/11/1943
729th     New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad     01/11/1943
730th     Pennsylvania Railroad     05/15/1942
731st     Union Pacific Railroad     Did not Activate
732nd     Great Northern Railway     01/12/1944
733rd     Central of Georgia Railway     11/23/1943
734th     Texas and New Orleans Railroad     02/23/1944
735th     ARR/Erie Railroad     02/10/1944
736th     New York Central     Did not Activate
737th     New York Central     09/30/1944
738th     Chicago Great Western Railway     Did not Activate
739th     Lehigh Valley Railroad     Did not Activate
740th     Chesapeake and Ohio Railway     12/14/1943
741st     Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad     01/12/1944
742nd     Pennsylvania Railroad     Did not Activate
743rd     Illinois Central Railroad     01/12/1944
744th     Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad     12/21/1943
745th     Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad     05/19/1943
746th     Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad     05/04/1944
747th     Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway     Did not Activate
748th     Texas and Pacific Railway     05/12/1943
749th     New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad     02/23/1943
750th     St. Louis – San Francisco Railway     03/21/1944
751st     Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad     Did not Activate
752nd     Boston and Maine Railroad     05/04/1944
759th     Missouri Pacific Railroad     09/01/1942
761st     Railway Transportation Company     07/22/1942
770th     None     08/09/1942
790th     None     07/08/1943
791st     No sponsorship (activated at Andimeshk, Iran)     07/01/1943
 

List of Railway Shop Battalions
Unit     Sponsor     Date of Activation
753d     Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway     04/15/1942
754th     Southern Pacific Lines     10/25/1942
755th     Norfolk & Western Railway     11/30/1942
756th     Pennsylvania Railroad     01/11/1943
757th     Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad     06/10/1943
758th     Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway     04/06/1943
760th     No sponsorship     06/16/1942
762d     No sponsorship     10/15/1942
763d     Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad; Lehigh Valley Railroad     07/27/1943
764th     Boston & Maine Railroad     10/25/1943
765th     Erie Railroad     05/01/1944
766th     Association of American Railroads     07/17/1944

Note: The 760th and 762d were RSB (Diesel); all others were RSB (Steam).

Thanks to Don Stone for this great indformation on his grandfather, Maj. Boyd W. Stone, Sr., of the 2nd MRS 

 In 1943 our Dad was drafted into the Army. Soon after, Gramps volunteered for the Army (Gram’s reaction to this decision is still echoing off the buildings on Ashland Ave. in St. Louis) and was commissioned a Captain in the 2nd Military Railway Unit, Headquarters Company. The 2nd Military Railway Unit was to be in charge of all railway transportation in northern France after the D-Day invasion. After training at a post that no longer exists outside of New Orleans, the unit went to England to await D-Day. 

On D+11 (eleven days after June 6, 1944) an advance party of 2nd MRS personnel (inlcuding Gramps) went into France through the Normandy beachhead. Some days thereafter Gramps was shot by a sniper, becoming the first casualty in his unit, and was medically evacuated back to England. His wound was the equivalent of his 3rd Purple Heart (I say “equivalent” because he wasn’t awarded “wound stripes” for his injuries in WW I because he didn’t go to a hospital).