United States Air Force
It was not my intention to attend Geneva College. I graduated from high school in the spring of 1941, thinking that I would be attending the University of West Virginia on a football scholarship. However, God had other plans for my life.
In late summer, I was told that I did not get the scholarship, because only a certain number of out of state players could be taken. My high school football coach and principal of the school, Sam Cooper, had attended Geneva and had played football for the College. He suggested I go to Geneva. I did apply and was accepted, although my high school grades were not that great. My interest at Geneva at that time was to play football, not to get an education. I played football that fall and received a part-time scholarship, which helped with my room and board.
The first semester ended in December, 1941. A few weeks earlier, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States declared war on Japan and Germany. Being a patriotic person and my grades not doing well, I enlisted in the Army Air Corp., which later changed to the United States Air Force. I told the recruiter that I wanted to learn to fly. He told me I would be flying in six months.
Six months later, I was in Alaska working as a clerk and assigned to the 11th Air Force Service Command. After 20 months, I returned to the states and served at several air bases before being discharged in October of 1945. Not certain what I wanted to do, I returned to Geneva in January of 1946. I found that many of the football players had also returned, and we played several years together after that. I also found that my education and studies were now more important that football, and thanks to God and the great people and professors at Geneva, I got both.
But God was not through giving. I met a pretty young lady, Frances Linton, who became my wife. He also gave us three beautiful children, two girls and a boy, who are raised and have children of their own.
Geneva College hosts a chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, an international English honors society open to English and Writing majors of high academic standing.
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