By Dave Hovland
From Bill Stott’s listserv:
David Hovland, a psychologist whose famous psychologist father, Carl Hovland (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Hovland), was instrumental in devising the I.Q. and other tests that turned US draftees into GIs (or washed them out) and pointed them to specializations, writes to celebrate other military family members:
Several of my uncles were involved in WWII. My father’s older brother was in the Army Corps of Engineers (a Major) and remained a “veteran type” all his life. The youngest brother (of the three) was Warren, who has celebrated his 95th birthday and is will soon be 96. We went out to Oregon last summer and there were about 95 people at his party. He was a Navy chaplain and then went to Yale Divinity School and was a disciple of Roland Bainton for his Ph.D., with a dissertation about Martin Luther’s influence on Switzerland. Warren founded the Religion department at Oregon State and had “Hovland Hall” named after him.
My mother was the oldest of five siblings. Her brother Bill took part in the Battle of the Bulge and almost froze. The youngest brother was not wounded but was depressed for about a year — “until he found the right wife” is an overly simple explanation. He lived in Connecticut in his later years, and one of his sons is an NBC executive, doing important things for the last three Olympics. A grandson is an Air Force Major, but is married to a (woman) Colonel … so has to salute her.
DID WORLD WAR II MAKE MEMORABLE IMPRESSIONS ON YOU?
If you’re willing, perhaps stirred by the 50th anniversary of D-day, please tell us some of your memories.
To read Paul Wortman’s reflections, click here.