Archives: Famous Phis

Leon Vance

Leon Vance received the Congressional Medal of Honor due to his bravery in World War II.

On June 5, 1944, Vance was assigned to lead the 489th BG on a diversionary attack against German coastal defenses near Wimereaux, France, in the Pas-de-Calais, to support the anticipated D-Day landings. The group had lost six bombers on a mission to bomb Brétigny Airfield near Paris on June 2 (Vance did not participate), partly as a consequence of attempting to bomb visually in poor weather conditions. As a result, the lead aircraft of the 489th’s formation on June 5 was a Pathfinder Force (PFF) “Mickey” B-24 detached from the 44th Bomb Group’s 66th Bomb Squadron to enable the group to bomb through overcast using “blind bombing” tactics. Vance positioned himself on the bomber’s flight deck, standing behind the aircraft commander and co-pilot.

After an 0900 takeoff, the group assembled its formation and climbed to its assigned 22,500 ft (6,900 m) altitude for the short flight to the French coast. The group approached the target area from the south but the bombs of the lead aircraft failed to release, and as a result none of the group bombed. Vance decided to make a second pass over the target rather than jettison the bombs into the English Channel, but as the formation approached the target a second time, it came under intense anti-aircraft fire (“flak”). The lead B-24 immediately sustained heavy battle damage. It continued the bomb run, however, and toggled its ordnance, but was further damaged by multiple flak bursts. In all, four crewmen were wounded, three of the four engines were disabled, and fuel lines ruptured in the fuselage. In addition, one of the aircraft’s bombs again failed to release. Immediately after bomb release, shrapnel from a final burst killed the aircraft commander and wounded Vance, nearly severing his right foot, which became wedged in cockpit framework behind the copilot’s seat. In the chaos that followed, comments on the interphone led Vance to believe that the crew’s radio operator, wounded in the legs, was too seriously injured to be evacuated.

The B-24 lost altitude rapidly after the pilot was killed, but the wounded copilot regained controlled flight, preventing a stall by putting it into a steep glide to maintain airspeed. Despite shock from his own wound, Vance was able to assist the copilot in “feathering” the propellers, shutting down the over-strained fourth engine, and optimizing the glide of the crippled aircraft. The crew’s “Mickey” operator, 2nd Lt. Bernard W. Bail, tried to dislodge Vance’s pinned foot and applied a makeshift tourniquet.

When the B-24 reached the English coast, it was too damaged to land safely. Vance ordered the crew to “bail out,” and after most had complied, took the controls and turned the aircraft back over the channel, where the remainder parachuted into the sea. He decided to attempt a water landing in the belief that the injured radio operator was still on the aircraft, even though B-24s were notoriously ill-suited for “ditching.” From a semi-prone position over the power plant controls island between the crew seats, Vance flew the bomber mainly by use of ailerons and elevators, keeping a visual reference through the side window of the cockpit. Although the Liberator survived the ditching largely intact, its dorsal gun turret collapsed and pinned Vance inside the flooded cockpit as the bomber sank. An explosion blew him clear of the wreckage, however, and he was eventually able to inflate his Mae West. After searching for the radio operator, Vance swam towards shore. He was finally picked up by an RAF Air-Sea Rescue launch after fifty minutes.

Edwin Watson

Edwin Martin “Pa” Watson was a United States Army Major General, friend and a senior aide to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, serving both as a military advisor and Appointments secretary (a role that is now encompassed under the duties of the modern-day White House Chief of Staff).

Watson became Senior Military Aide to the newly inaugurated President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. He helped FDR navigate the bureaucracy of the War Department and the Army, especially during the crucial years prior to America’s entry into the Second World War. He was also appointed the President’s Appointments secretary in 1938 after the previous secretary Marvin H. McIntyre’s illness prevented him from continuing with his duties, managing access to the President and dictating the tenor of his daily schedule.

By virtue of his proximity to the President, Watson was present at some of the defining moments of the Second World War. These included a meeting about the Einstein–Szilard letter, which would eventually lead to the creation of the Manhattan Project, and FDR’s agreement to the Atlantic Charter alongside British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, providing a framework for those values that would guide the post-war world. He was in constant contact with Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz. He attended the Teheran Conference where the first of the negotiations between FDR, Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin took place. Although in poor health, he attended the Yalta Conference in February 1945 as well, where the Big Three negotiated for the future of Europe.

The War Department, in recognition of his service, posthumously awarded him the Distinguished Service Medal, which was presented by President Harry Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt to his widow Frances Nash Watson.

Ray Baker

Ray Stannard Baker (also known by his pen name David Grayson) was an American journalist, historian, biographer, and author.

In 1898 Baker joined the staff of McClure’s, a pioneer muckraking magazine, and quickly rose to prominence along with Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell. He also dabbled in fiction, writing children’s stories for the magazine Youth’s Companion and a 9-volume series of stories about rural living in America, the first of which was titled “Adventures in Contentment” (1910) under his pseudonym David Grayson, which reached millions of readers worldwide.

In 1907 dissatisfied with the muckraker label, Baker, Steffens, and Tarbell left McClure’s and founded The American Magazine. In 1908 after the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot got him involved, Baker published the book Following the Color Line: An Account of Negro Citizenship in the American Democracy, becoming the first prominent journalist to examine America’s racial divide; it was extremely successful.

He followed up that work with numerous articles in the following decade.

In 1912, Baker supported the presidential candidacy of Woodrow Wilson, which led to a close relationship between the two men, and in 1918 Wilson sent Baker to Europe to study the war situation. During peace negotiations, Baker served as Wilson’s press secretary at Versailles. He eventually published 15 volumes about Wilson and internationalism, including the 6-volume The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson (1925-1927) with William Edward Dodd, and the 8-volume Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters (1927–39), the last two volumes of which won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1940. He served as an adviser on Darryl F. Zanuck’s 1944 film Wilson.

Baker wrote three autobiographies, Native American (1941) , American Chronicle (1945) and Turtles (1943)

A dormitory at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is named in honor of Baker, using his pen name David Grayson. David Grayson Elementary School in Waterford, Michigan is also named in his honor using his pen name.

Fletcher Benton

Fletcher Benton is an American sculptor and painter from San Francisco, California. Benton is widely known for his kinetic art as well as his large-scale steel abstract geometric sculptures. After graduating in 1956 with his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, Fletcher began his teaching career at the California College of Arts and Crafts. After three years he served as an instructor at the San Francisco Art Institute from 11964 to 1967 and has since been a professor as San Jose State University. Fletcher began exhibiting his art as early as 1961. Since, his sculptures, paintings, drawings and prints have been displayed in exhibits throughout America and in six other countries. Fletcher first gained recognitions as major Kinetic sculptor as well as his large-scale steel abstract geometric sculptures. In 2008, Fletcher Benton was a recipient of the International Sculpture Center’s Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award. In 1993 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Miami University at the Miami University Art Museum. And in 1995, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters by the University of Rio Grande, located in Gallia County, Ohio.

Works by Benton are in the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum, CO; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; The Milwaukee Art Center, WI, New Orleans Museum of Art, LA; Oakland Museum and Sculpture Garden, CA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY and other major museums, universities and corporations.

Louis Bromfield

Louis Bromfield served bravely in WWI. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor for his heroism. After the war he returned to New York City, working as a reporter. His first novel, The Green Bay Tree, received high praise in 1924, and in1927, Early Autumn won the Pulitzer Prize. All 30 of his novels were best-sellers, and many of them, such as The Rains Came and Mrs. Parkington, were made into successful motion pictures.

For the next 13 years, Bromfield and his family lived in France, a country he had come to love during his service in WWI. With WWII approaching, the Bromfield’s moved back to the U.S. Bromfield bought 1,000 acres near his hometown in Mansfield, Ohio. He opened a farm named “Malabar Farm.” For the next 20 years Bromfield continued writing and also developed new organic and self-sustaining gardening practices. Malabar Farm was among the first farms to stop using pesticides, it was a government test site, and was later made into a state park visited annually by 35,000 guests. In the 1980s, Bromfield was elected to the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame.

Eugene Field

Eugene Field, Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children’s poetry and humorous essays. He was known as the “poet of childhood.” He worked as a journalist for the St. Joseph Gazette in Saint Joseph, Missouri, in 1875 and soon became editor of the Gazette. He became known for his light, humorous articles written in a gossipy style. It was during this time that he wrote the famous poem “Lovers Lane” about a street in St. Joseph, Missouri.

From 1876 through 1880 Field lived in St. Louis, first as an editorial writer for the Morning Journal and subsequently for the Times-Journal. After a brief stint as managing editor of the Kansas City Times, he worked for two years as editor of the Denver Tribune.

In 1883 Field moved to Chicago where he wrote a humorous newspaper column called Sharps and Flats for the Chicago Daily News. Field first started publishing poetry in 1879, when his poem “Christmas Treasures” appeared in A Little Book of Western Verse. Over a dozen volumes of poetry followed and he became well known for his light-hearted poems for children, among the most famous of which are “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod” and “The Duel”. Field also published a number of short stories, including “The Holy Cross” and “Daniel and the Devil.”

Russell Freeburg

Russell W. Freeburg was awarded the bronze star in for advancing alone under enemy fire during his service in World War II as a staff sergeant. He then began his journalism career in 1948 at the City News Bureau of Chicago as a reporter. He then joined the Chicago Tribune in 1950 and stayed there the next seven years, covering a variety of topics.

In 1958 he moved to Washington D.C. to cover the economics beat, the Justice Department, and the White House and presidential political campaigns. He was named the executive director of the Tribune‘s Washington bureau in 1966 and two years later, named the bureau chief. Lastly with the Tribune, Freeburg served as the paper’s managing editor for a year before resigning and returning to Washington.

He has also been a Meet the Press panelist, and was the White House coordinator to President Gerald Ford’s Citizens’ Action Committee to Fight Inflation. Freeburg co-authored Oil & War with Robert Goralski of NBC News, which was published in 1987 and authored There Ought to Be a Place, published in 2001.

Dave Gerard

David ‘Dave’ Charles Gerard was a nationally syndicated cartoonist, creator of the Will-Yum and Citizen Smith series. He was also a freelance cartoonist for the Saturday Evening Post, Colliers and other similar magazines.

Walter Havighurst

Walter Edwin Havighurst was a novelist, and social and literary historian of the Midwest. He was awarded honorary degrees from Lawrence College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Marietta College, and Miami University.

Havighurst taught English at Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, from 1928 to 1969 and served interim terms on the faculties of Connecticut College, the University of Colorado and the University of British Columbia. Miami named him Regents Professor of English Emeritus.

Havighurst was the author of over 30 books, including Pier 17, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and Annie Oakley of the Wild West. His writing earned awards from the Friends of American Writers, the American Association for State and Local History and the Rockefeller Foundation. River Road to the West received the American History Prize of the Society of Midland Authors.

In 1970, the Walter Havighurst Special Collections at Miami University was established and named in his honor.

Ernest Ingold

Ernest Ingold, business executive; decorated Order of the Crown of Oak (Luxembourg); recipient Silver Keystone award Boys Clubs American. Member San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. (president 1943), United States Chamber of Commerce (director 1945), California Bar Association; member Better Business Bureau (president 1942). Author of Tales of a Peddler (1942) and The House in Mallorca (1952).