Culver Military Academy - Roll Call Yearbook (Culver, IN)

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9' The two men of mathematics shown on the left are Colonel Shanks and Major Obenauf. The Colonel is the head of the department and has written his own book for advanced mathematics. In athletics he is known for his ability on the tennis and squash courts. Major Obenauf is the founder of the Culver skeet club and heads the varsity rifle and skeet teams which turn in such astonishingly good scores against all kinds of opposition. Colonel Shanks says, People will think of Culver in terms of what you do. Mr. Kiernan looks happier than the marginal time student. Maybe he's just glad Wally's back so he won't have so much responsibility on his hands with the swimming team. I don't see why he should beg he certainly did a swell job. This is Mr. Kiernan's third year in the Math Department, and the third year that he's been regarded by all of us as a most courteous and kindly gentleman. Iill be darned! Major Stinchcomb is astounded to hear one of his well-trained students make an odious error. He is a rule-pounder, and well I know it. I remember him especially because his rules never failed for me. Heis been doing a swell job pinch-hitting for Colonel Walmer as tactical officer of D company since the Colonel was called to active duty. Ceramics is his hobby, at which he works every after- noon in the new Music and Art Building. i'Work hard at one thing is his good word to us. He's been doing so for twenty-one years, he should know. Here he is, the wit of the faculty! He is looked up to as the Addison and Steele CBOTID of today. His advice to us was Beware of a questionnaire! When he stops putting something over on somebody in his class, he coaches D Company in basketball and football. I Flunkumi' Donnelly has one thing over every instructor at the Academy. Some of them can be very funny at times and studious at other times, but hc can be side-splittingly funny and at the same time teach Math. Did you ever have to work one of his special Christmas problems? You thought you'd never get home. Mr. Bentz drew this diagram just for the photographer, but the photographer couldn't figure out the answerg can you? He was a whiz at getting a blackboard covered with figures. His advice was Take time out to relax. Yet, he doesn't follow his own rule, for he coaches B Company's basketball team and is the assistant coach of the varsity tennis team. Opera takes him to Chicago occasionally, and Math takes him to the Math Building all the time. Robert Herbert Shanks, Wfake Forest College, A.B., Columbia University A.M., Cambridge QEng.D, Colonel C.M.A., Chairman Mathematics Department. H. A. Obenauf, Wittenburg College, A.B., University of Pennsylvania A.M., Captain Ordnance Reserve, Major C.M.A. Senior Instructor in Mathematics Department. Director of BiHe Marksmanship. Peter John Kiernan, Columbia University, A.B., A.M., Assistant Instructor in Mathematics and Swimming Coach. Judd Thomas Slinchcomb, Ohio University, BS., Ohio State University, M.A., Major Infantry Reserve. Instructor Department of Mathematics, Tactical Officer Company D. Alfred John Donnelly, Harvard, S.B., Ed.M., Associate Instructor of Mathe- matics, Com any Football, Basketball, and Assistant Coach Varsity Baseball. Ralph Porter Bentz, IVest Chester State Teachers College, B.S., Penn. State College, Ed.M., Assistant Instructor of Algebra and Geometry. Company Basketball Coach and Assistant Tennis Coach. 28

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When not shaking his head sadly over a misspelled word or ex- plaining the technicalities of parallel structure in English class during the morning, Mr. Hill is generally to be seen through a mist of blood and rosin playing second to Mike's boxers or swinging a racket on the tennis courts in imitation of Mr. Goode. In his spare1time he was advisor to this year's ROLL CALL. Blame him if you donit like what's said about you. He censored the story I was going to tell! His advice is Never explain anything. Your friends wonit need it, and your enemies won't believe you anyhowf' A Yale man of great proportions, with a list of degrees that looks like a New Deal report, Dr. McKee is the active sponsor of Vedette and Quill. CDeadline Mack-they call him.j Our learned professor must have been talking to some very cheerful alumni, for he says, Forsan et haee olim meminisse iuvabitf' which means roughly, This won't look so bad later on',-very roughly. Mr. Rust is smiling with satisfaction as he files those photos away in good order. If you can drag him away from his favorite pastime of journalism, he will discuss a wee bit of English and history with you tif you insistb, as he has taught both. He has led a varied career at C.M.A., having been in Summer School, coached Troop basketball, and assisted in the Admissions Office. Here he is-the man we dedicate this book to, Major Young. How could anyone ever remember Chaucer and forget Major Young at the same time? And could you ever forget Chaucer after that course? Remember how the Major always used to say, Chaucer is easy to read and easy to understand. Everybody understands it-cvery- body! Did you ever get into Major Young's room? Yes, you're right, those were books--from wall to wall and from floor to ceiling and all over the room books, books, books. Whenever I had any very obscure reference to look up-much too deep for the library-I'd go to him. Then he'd drift through the volumes in his bookcase and finally say, Let me see, I think itis here.'7 And he was always right! Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and those of us who took English II under Captain Smith last year have certainly missed him this year, while he was on sabbatical leave, adding to his already copious knowledge of English. One of his greatest claims to fame is his book, The Reading of Poetry. Just ask me what Nonomatopoeiaw is. Go ahead-ask me. All right then, look it up in his book for your- self. Trochees, iambs, abba's, hexameters-they're all in there, and the funny thing is that you'll like 'em too the way Captain Smith explains them. A. T. Hill, Brown University, A.B., Harvard University, Ed.M., Associate ln- structor of English. Assistant Coach of Varsity Boxing and Tennis, ROLL CALL Staff. Irving McKee, Yale University, A.B., A.M., Ph.D:, University of California, Department of English, Advisor of Quill and Vedette. Robert Rust, Franklin College, A.B., Indiana University, Assistant Instructor in Histor ' and English, Assistant Director of Admissions. Charles Stuart Young, Union College, A.B., University of Chicago, M.A., Major, C.M.A., Instructor of English. J. H. Smith, Harvard University, A.B., M.A., Captain, C.M.A., Instructor of English. 27

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Among the celebrities I mentioned is our Summa Cum Laude from Harvard. In his one year of teaching he has proved more theo- rems than exist. Mr. Syer was also successful as a company rifle coach, and as a fencing instructor. Photography is his hobby, and he always modestly replies when asked whether he knows anything about cameras, A little, why? He's even written a book on how to use movies in Math., starring Hedy, I sincerely hope. To us he says, Always take the shortest cutf,-wish I could have applied that to his assignments, but it's too late now. The varsity wrestling coach poses for a close-up. Mr. Coulding has been teaching Math and coaching Company B in football and base- ball now for five years. He has married since coming here. See what Culver gets for you? He is the master of any slide rule and has proved this by organizing the Engineers' Club. Think of that! Doing Math problems in your spare time. Mr. Strait is evidently one of Mr. Goulding's rivals with the slide rule. If I could figure out that square root, Knudsen wouldn't be in Washington-and neither would I. Physics is his business, and when he gets sick of it, all he has to do is revert to photography and the Photography Club, of which he is head. Did they do this one, I wonder? No! Donit be silly! Of course Mr. Baker isn't working in the stenographic department! He's just relaying a message on that com- plex radio set of his. When he can be torn from this pastime, he teaches physics and chemistry. We may remember his advice to the post chemists or alchemists Cmore of a likeness to Culver studentsj: Once in a while a fly comes to every Helder, but he gets only one chance to catch it. Did you know that the Culver radio station is on the Armyls network of amateurs working for Defense? Doc', ,Iohnson is up to his favorite sport of filling reagent bottles again. His friend must be a Chemistry-test-dopcr-outer . . . wrong again, it's Mr. Kernohan. Ten faithful years are behind Dr. Johnson. He has a technique all his own of handling the reagent bottles. I don't think he's ever dropped one! . . . Mr. Kernohan for three years has been a favorite of the physics phlunkersf' The advices of these two men respectively are, There will be competition in college too. tDr. Johnsonj, and Get plenty of work and play-both of them hard CMr. Kernohanj. Henry Wh Syer, Harvard, B.S.., Ed.M., Assistant Instructor in Mathematics De- partment, Assistant in Fencing, and Instructor in Company Rifle. Charles VV. Goulding, Brown University, B.S., Columbia, Associate In- structor in the Mathematics Department, Coach of Varsity W restling, B Com- pany Football and Baseball. U W. Wi. Strait, Albion College, A.B., University of Michigan, M.S., Associate Instructor in the Science Department, Sponsor of Photography Club. Harold M. Baker, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, S.B., Harvard Grad- uate School of Education, Ed.M., Associate Instructor in the Science Depart- ment. George O. Johnson, Milton College, A.B., University of Vffisconsin, Ph.D., Chair- man of the Science Department. Robert H. Kernohan, Oberlin College, A.B., Columbia University, M.A., As- sistant Instructor in the Science Department, Company A Football, Basketball, and Baseball. 29