Tyrus William Cobb, PhD, Col. U.S. Army (ret.)

Ty Cobb, Reno native and fourth generation Nevadan, passed away at age 84 peacefully in the presence of family and friends on December 7, 2024.

Ty’s great-great-grandparents arrived in Virginia City, NV, in the late 1800’s to find their fortune on the Comstock. His grandparents, Will and Eva Cobb, were mainstays in the mining town with Will serving as Sheriff, Assemblyman, and Senator for Storey County. Their son, Reno newsman and Distinguished Nevadan Tyrus Richard Cobb and Olga Glusovich, an orphan from Tonopah, NV, met in Reno and later married. Ty graduated from Reno High School in 1958 and the University of Nevada in 1962.

Ever the young leader, Ty was president of the Sigma Nu fraternity and unofficial head of the “Vagabond Touring Association”- a group of Reno friends who purchased a decommissioned school bus and used it for travel and hijinx. At one point, a large percentage of the Vagabonds were incarcerated for driving the bus down Virginia Street with a keg of beer on board and causing a disturbance, which included charges of Kidnapping a Police Officer (charges that were later dismissed). The jailbirds were bailed out the next morning by Ty’s father and immediately rushed to check the back of the newspaper in hopes that they would escape trouble if the article printed on the arrests was small enough. They were initially relieved to see only a small blurb on the back page until they examined closer and saw the text, “Story Continued From Front Page…”. The next close call came when the crew traveled to the Shriners Football Game in San Francisco, drove the bus directly into the stadium, got out and mingled like they belonged there, and actually sent in a few plays from the sidelines before beating a hasty retreat as the authorities caught on. Not all of their adventures involved run-ins with the law, fortunately, including the time that they used a solitary press pass to gain access to the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics where they witnessed the first “Miracle on Ice” when the Americans stunned the Soviet hockey team with a victory on its way to Olympic Gold.

Upon graduation from Reno High, Ty embarked upon a lifelong pursuit of discovery and exploration. It all started with a decision by him and three classmates to hitchhike across the nation, find a way aboard a boat across the Atlantic, and then hitchhike their way across Europe. They were aided in this endeavor by several Truckee Meadows casinos that sponsored them in exchange for them handing out casino advertisements to Europeans who might then travel to the United States on a gambling vacation. This plan worked well until they were harassed by the police in one locality where “casino” was a term used for a brothel! The group managed to hitchhike all the way to Istanbul, Turkey, with their hearts set on continuing through Iraq when they were turned back due to a coup orchestrated by Saddam Hussein.

He joined the U.S. Army after returning home and in 1965 he married his college sweetheart, Suellen Small, in Venice, Italy, where he was first stationed. He spoke fluent Italian and translated the Venetian mayor's admonition (who presided over the ceremony): "The woman must do as told as the man is the head of the household, it doesn't matter if the man is a drunk, a womanizer, etc., ...". Suellen was understandably skeptical of the translation. Ted Stoever was one of the only Reno locals who was able to attend the wedding. He and Ty held an impromptu Bachelor Party at the Officer’s Club/bar in Venice which served both U.S. Army officers as well as local Venetians. Ty, not knowing the Italian term for “shot glass,” ordered the pair a couple of “glasses of grappa,” a very strong liquor akin to moonshine, and when they were served these large quantities, the bar went quiet in astonishment. Ty knew not to gulp the kerosene-like substance down, but turned to Ted and devilishly informed him, “the whole bar is watching, you’ve got to down this all at once.” Ted nodded his head and started gulping with his eyes opening up to the size of saucers, and after he finished the glass, Ted slammed it down and exclaimed, “man that’s good, could I have another?” The bar erupted in cheers!

Ty and Suellen loved their experience being stationed in Venice and toured around Europe in a MGB convertible. Academically, Ty earned an MA from Indiana University and a PhD in Soviet Studies from Georgetown University. They returned to Europe multiple times in the 27 moves that they experienced in their life together–mainly due to Ty’s 26-year military career–and built a family during these exciting years. In 1967 their eldest, Janice, was born in Reno while Ty was serving in his first tour in Vietnam, followed by Jacquelline who was born at Fort Sill, OK, and Tyrus Obren (also “Ty”) who was born in Fort Belvoir, VA.

The family at one point spent an entire summer in the former Soviet Union in an exchange program with the communist regime. This was a tremendous eye-opener to them as it showed first hand that the supposedly powerful Soviet Empire was really a paper tiger. The family stayed in an apartment building that was so poorly built that there was a large split in the middle that they had to hop over to cross the room. Products were so poorly manufactured that electronics often broke down the first day they were used. The people were so destitute that a single pair of blue jeans were considered a luxury. It all confirmed for Ty that the economies of the western world could out produce and outlast that of the communists. The experience also exposed the family to how repressive the Soviet regime was, as they were tailed by KGB agents at every turn to ensure that no citizens were able to communicate with members of the free world. This led to one humorous incident in which a Russian driver almost ran over one of the family members with his careless driving, which led to Ty violently beating the driver’s vehicle with his briefcase as the stunned KGB agents observed!

Luckily no one was injured in that incident, but Ty was awarded numerous medals and commendations during his years of military service including a Purple Heart for injuries received in his second tour in Vietnam. Ty was also attached to the military headquarters there and in one of his many brushes with history-making events, he was the officer on duty when the order came in to bomb North Vietnam. Ty was so concerned about potentially sending the wrong coordinates that he double-checked the accuracy with an annoyed commanding officer. He credited this bold and controversial move with pushing the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table to eventually end the war.

Ty was there until the bitter end of the American engagement and was even part of the contingent tasked with flying into Hanoi to retrieve the remainder of the American POWs as part of the Paris Peace Treaty implementation. The contingent included an American General, a North Vietnamese General, and a high-ranking officer in the Viet Cong. The American General said to the North Vietnamese General, “you know, you never once defeated us in a straight-up fight.” The Vietnamese General responded, “this is very true, General, but also completely immaterial,” [as the tactics still achieved their goals]. As the American transport plane approached Hanoi, it occurred to Ty that the news of the ceasefire may not have reached all fighters on the ground, especially the loosely commanded Viet Cong. As they were approaching the capital of North Vietnam, he turned to the Viet Cong officer and asked, “are you certain that your men know that there is a ceasefire in place?” To which the officer cooly responded, “we will find out.”

Upon gathering all of the prisoners and support troops from Hanoi, the American General in charge waited for everyone to board the plane, he looked around and declared that he was the last soldier to leave Vietnam. The plane departed Vietnam and the first stop on American soil was Alaska. Ty waited in the rear of the plane for all other military personnel to deboard and then when he exited the plane, he whispered to himself, “I am the last soldier to return from Vietnam.”

The war itself was difficult for him to justify as he was certainly aware of the perils of communism spreading worldwide, but felt that those in charge implemented a strategy based on how not to lose as opposed to a focus on winning the war. Later, when commanding officer General Westmoreland published his memoir about how he felt his hands were tied by the Congress and other civilians making the war unwinnable, Ty was pretty upset with him, feeling that he and other officers in charge should have resigned in protest to speak up on behalf of the troops fighting and dying on the ground instead of maintaining their lofty positions.

Although Ty had problems with how the war was waged, he was certain of the necessity of countering the worldwide spread of authoritarian communism. This drove much of the focus of his military career where he eventually earned the rank of Colonel, his tenured professorship at West Point teaching Soviet Studies, and his eventual work in the White House as a Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan for National Security Affairs. A crystalizing event for him was when he was present in 1962 with his Reno High classmates at the infamous Checkpoint Charlie crossing between East (communist) and West Berlin along the Berlin Wall. As the trio were passing through, they heard shots ring out and witnessed the murder of several young East Germans attempting to escape to freedom. One young man made it, but the other two were shot and lay dying as the boys from Reno watched helpless; one of them calling for help for an hour before perishing. Murdered for wanting nothing more than their freedom.

Witnessing this event also heavily influenced his contribution to the famous speech that was delivered there 25 years later by his boss, President Ronald Reagan. The sentiment of the West had always been that if a country’s political system was so popular and just, then why would it need a wall to keep its people in? There needed to be a strong statement by the president demanding that the will of the people to be free be honored. It was highly controversial among Reagan’s advisors and Ty witnessed the president listen carefully to all arguments, and in the end, determine that the statement needed to be made: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

A fluent speaker of seven languages including Russian, Ty was the Executive Secretary for President Reagan's summits with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva (1985) and Reykjavik (1986). Many of his fascinating stories from this work of which he was most proud are included in his book, Reagan and the Russians available on Amazon at: https://a.co/d/bPfO72w

Not all of his experiences from the White House were tense and controversial, and some were downright humorous (in retrospect). He loved to tell the story of the phone call he received from the Icelandic Ambassador threatening to oust American forces from the strategically important island country due to the U.S. joining in the call to ban whaling, a practice still active there. This obviously startled the membership of the National Security Council, of which he was a member, who held an emergency meeting with President Reagan to discuss the matter. After much debate, the president turned to Ty and asked, “well Ty, how many whales are there?” Not remotely knowing the answer to this question, he called an Agency to inform them of the president’s query, and received a call back a few minutes later, “736,840.” He never knew where that number came from or how accurate it was, but it would do in a pinch!

Ty was incredibly proud of his service to President Reagan and spoke fondly of the Commander in Chief for the remainder of his years. His work on behalf of the president precipitated the collapse of the Soviet Union and he saw the Reagan presidency as the renewal of American greatness and the end of the worldwide communist scourge that he had battled against for all of his years in public service.

After his life of public service, Ty was President of the Business Executives for National Security think tank in Washington and Yosemite National Institutes in San Francisco. He and Suellen returned to their hometown of Reno in 2002 where Ty headed the Northern Nevada National Security Forum and the Northern Nevada Network. He was appointed to be the Nevada Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army (CASA) in 2005 and in 2017 he was the recipient of the University of Nevada’s “Distinguished Nevadan” honor, just as his father had received before him.

He is survived by his wife, three children, five grandchildren Lauren, Hosanna, Sophie, Kevin, and Lizzie, his sister Patricia, and his brother William (Cathleen) as well as several nieces and nephews. His final years were spent in Reno with the family and friends whom he loved and who loved him in return. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for his remarkable life of service, and even though he will be missed by all who knew him, he now may enjoy the rest that he so rightfully deserves.

Memorial donations may be made to the University of Nevada, Reno Foundation for the Tyrus W. Cobb International Affairs Scholarship Endowment #175832, Mail Stop 0162, Reno, NV 89557 or online at www.unr.edu/giving. A public Celebration of Life will be held at the Elks Lodge Reno on January 26, 2025 at 2pm. 

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