Illinois State Society of Washington, DC

Illinois Hall of Fame: Andrew Goodpaster

By Mark Rhoads

Gen. Andrew Jackson Goodpaster, Jr. was a combat veteran of World War II and a staff aide to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower after the war as well as an adviser to President Eisenhower when he was in The White House.  In the 1960s, Goodpaster was a deputy commander of U.S. forces in Viet Nam. He later stepped into Ike's former post of commander of NATO and Supreme Commander Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE) from 1969 to 1974. A winner of the Medal of Freedom, he came out of retirement in 1977 at the request of President Carter to return to active duty as the 51st Commandant of his alma mater, West Point.

Goodpaster was born on Feb. 12, 1915 in Granite City, Illinois. Granite City is in southwest Madison County near the Mississippi River and north of East St. Louis. His father worked for the railroad. Goodpaster graduated from Granite City High School with the class of 1931 when he was only 16. He wanted to be a math teacher and began studies at McKendree College in Lebanon, Illinois in the fall of 1931. McKendree is a beautiful campus of 100 acres and is the oldest college in Illinois having been founded in 1828 by the United Methodist Church. But Goodpaster had to drop out of college due to financial hard times during the Depression.

In 1935 at the age of 20, Goodpaster won an appointment to West Point and he graduated with the Class of 1939. Among some of his major assignments and decorations as a soldier the following were included according to the web site of Arlington National Cemetery:

"In World War II he was twice wounded while leading a combat engineer battalion in North Africa and Italy. In addition to two Purple Hearts, he was awarded the Army's second-highest decoration for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross, for making a reconnaissance under heavy fire through a minefield, and a Silver Star."

By Mark Rhoads

Gen. Andrew Jackson Goodpaster, Jr. was a combat veteran of World War II and a staff aide to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower after the war as well as an adviser to President Eisenhower when he was in The White House.  In the 1960s, Goodpaster was a deputy commander of U.S. forces in Viet Nam. He later stepped into Ike's former post of commander of NATO and Supreme Commander Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE) from 1969 to 1974. A winner of the Medal of Freedom, he came out of retirement in 1977 at the request of President Carter to return to active duty as the 51st Commandant of his alma mater, West Point.

Goodpaster was born on Feb. 12, 1915 in Granite City, Illinois. Granite City is in southwest Madison County near the Mississippi River and north of East St. Louis. His father worked for the railroad. Goodpaster graduated from Granite City High School with the class of 1931 when he was only 16. He wanted to be a math teacher and began studies at McKendree College in Lebanon, Illinois in the fall of 1931. McKendree is a beautiful campus of 100 acres and is the oldest college in Illinois having been founded in 1828 by the United Methodist Church. But Goodpaster had to drop out of college due to financial hard times during the Depression.

In 1935 at the age of 20, Goodpaster won an appointment to West Point and he graduated with the Class of 1939. Among some of his major assignments and decorations as a soldier the following were included according to the web site of Arlington National Cemetery:

"In World War II he was twice wounded while leading a combat engineer battalion in North Africa and Italy. In addition to two Purple Hearts, he was awarded the Army's second-highest decoration for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross, for making a reconnaissance under heavy fire through a minefield, and a Silver Star."

Illinois Hall of Fame: Frank Knox

By Mark Rhoads

Frank Knox was a Republican who was asked by a Democratic president to serve his country in a time of danger. Knox was the publisher of the Chicago Daily News starting in 1930. Under his leadership, the newspaper had a conservative and pro-Republican editorial policy.

In 1936, Republican Gov. Alf Landon of Kansas asked Frank Knox to be his running mate as the Vice Presidential nominee against the Democratic ticket of Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York and John Nance Garner of Texas. FDR won in a landslide. Landon and Knox carried only two states, Maine and Vermont.

But in 1940, FDR realized he needed to reach out to Republicans to build bipartisan support for his pro-British foreign policy and the lend-lease program whereby America would let Great Britain borrow surplus American ships to fight Nazi Germany.  This was not a neutral policy and FDR knew it and so did the Germans.  In a typically astute political move, FDR asked Knox, a nationally prominent Republican, to serve as Secretary of the Navy in his administration and the pro-British Knox agreed. He was on duty on the Sunday of the Pearl Habor attack on Dec. 7, 1941. Within days he was on his way to Hawaii on a fact-finding mission.

Illinois Hall of Fame: James B. Stockdale

By Mark Rhoads

Admiral James B. Stockdale was one of the most highly decorated officers in the history of the U.S. Navy and the only Navy officer of his rank ever to wear both flying wings and The Congressional Medal of Honor.

Stockdale was born on Dec. 23, 1923 at Galesburg Cottage Hospital. He grew up in Abingdon, Illinois in Knox County, a town of about 2,800 people 50 miles west of Peoria. His parents were Vernon and Mabel Stockdale.  Vernon was a self-made man who owned a farm and was Vice President of Abingdon Potteries where he supervised Italian artisans.  "Stock" as the senior Stockdale was known was a Navy veteran of the First World War.

In 1935, Stock took 11-year old James to hear a  commencement speech by Admiral Richard Byrd at Iowa Wesleyan College. Byrd was a world-famous hero like Charles Lindbergh in the 1930s for his exploits in Antarctica including the fact that led a crew that was first to fly over the South Pole in 1929. James was very impressed with Byrd and Byrd became a role model.  From that time, Stock decided that the U.S. Naval Academy would be a goal for James.