Edwin L. "Ted" Hoover

I had, prewar, about 2 yrs of college (bizad) not enough for adv. psych, so I was funneled into Basic Engineering at SUI. Not my cup of tea, but came out OK Thoroughly enjoyed math, after I once saw math as a language, almost a religious experience! It was a tough period, the little bit of time off I spent at Currier, sororities, Cedar Rapids USO and church, I rediscovered the Episcopal Church and went regularly to Trinity, often with Dan Levandowski, got to know various profs in a different surrounding. I remember an English prof, Warren Austin, who introduced me to John Donne, A priceless gift. Dan, I, others often went to the Huddle Sunday brunch.

When the basic program whimpered out, I was put on the radar track: Truax, WI, Chanute IL. and Boca Raton, FL, I was a LORAN expert, used only in the Pacific, so, snafu, was sent to Italy, 451 Bomb Gp, XV Air. Ended up as radar shack clerk, doing 13 copies on a portable typewriter, all of which had to be destroyed because it was top-secret. Stateside to Dow, ME. where I was hospitalized for hepatitis due to a bad yellow fever shot in Naples. Then to Ft. Totten, NY where I found I had a fourth battle star (bottle scar) thus enough points to be discharged.

Back to Denver, and Denver U, met the girl I would marry. And graduated in two quarters, thanks to ASTP credits and some extension courses. Then on to General Seminary, NYC; In 1949 graduated and was ordained.

Took charge of two missions in CO's Arkansas Valley. Built a church, married and then went to Tulsa in 1949 as an assistant, We produced three children (the oldest. a daughter now an architect in Knoxville, married to a timberman, have three children. a plane, and a post-and-beam house; our second, a son, is a Columbia, Ph.D., now a prof at McGill, Montreal, currently on sabbatical in Bolivia and Tucson.; our younger son is in Texas, had been on Gov. Ann Richard's staff, and after she was "Bushed out" he went to work in the state dept. of health. He is married and they have two children.)

While in Tulsa we built three buildings, founded two churches. and spent a sabbatical year in England at Cambridge. In 1963 moved to Memphis as Episcopal chaplain to Memphis State (now Memphis U), while there we had all of the 60's problems (the discovery of sex, race, etc.) The assassination of MLK brought it's own problems, and we were part of an oral history project. We built a chapel.

And then moved on to become Okies from Muskogee, While there (14 years) we integrated a southern, Edwardian parish, sponsored several for the ministry, including two women (one white, the other black). Virginia, my wife, became a psychologist, got a Ph.D. and blossomed. She got a great offer of a position as the chief psychologist at a mental health hospital in Lawton, OK, really a suburb of Ft. Sill. I retired and joined her there, doing interim and supply work, including four contracts at Ft. Sill. The army is still snafu, but not as much fun as in the 40's.

After Virginia retired (1993) we moved to a condo in Tulsa. We have continued traveling (all continents save Antarctica). Have a white terrier named Hyacinth. Now I swim, do pastoral work, and meet with committees. We celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary in April 2000.