Tucker Resident Graduates from U.S. Merchant Marine Academy

OUR TOWN DEKALB STAFF

Tucker resident William Arthur Roberts of Tucker graduated in June from the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York. During the commencement ceremony, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg presented Roberts and his fellow graduating Midshipmen with the agency’s highest honor, the Outstanding Unit Award Gold Medal, for the class’s maintenance of military bearing, esprit de corps, and superior achievement during the period of severe global maritime supply chain disruptions during the COVID pandemic.

Over the course of four years, Roberts earned a Bachelor of Science degree in marine logistics and security and a commission as an ensign in the U.S. Navy Reserve. During that same period, he also obtained a Federal Communications Commission radio operator license, Coast Guard deck officer license, and Merchant Mariner credential as a third mate in the U.S. Maritime Service. While a midshipman at the Academy, Roberts rowed with the highly successful Varsity Crew. Roberts completed four years of rigorous study in three years to allow time for spending a year at sea as a Cadet. During his “sea year,” he crossed the Atlantic three times and circumnavigated the globe on humanitarian, commercial, and governmental assignments to ports of call and points across North and Central America, Europe, the Mideast, and Asia. (Roberts was profiled in the April 2021 issue of Our Town DeKalb.) Roberts is a graduate of St. Martin’s Episcopal School in Atlanta and Baylor School in Chattanooga. He is the son of Tracy and Peter Roberts of Tucker and the grandson of Wilma and the late Arthur Andersen of Decatur and of the late Nan and Bert Roberts of Nassau, Bahamas. Roberts is employed as a second officer with Foss Maritime Company.