Questions Answered by Lois Herr, Author of “Dear Coach: Letters Home from WWII”

Author Lois Herr has stopped by to answer your questions about her new book “Dear Coach: Letters Home from WWII.” Please join me in welcoming Lois Herr.

Thank you for having me! I received some very good questions and can’t wait to share my answers. But first, for those unfamiliar with the book, in “Dear Coach: Letters Home from WWII” I’ve compiled together a variety of the letters mom and I stumbled across in the attic written to dad by his athletes during WWII, with pictures, scrapbook clippings, newspaper articles and a wide variety of historical information from the time to paint a picture of what life must have been like for these small-town college men and women as not only their country went into war, but so did their friends and family.

What inspired you to write “Dear Coach: Letters Home from WWII”?
Finding and reading the letters in 2002 made such an immediate impression on me that I wanted to share the story they told. At first I thought of just printing the letters but learned that readers would have to know the context of the college community and a little about my parents so that they could really get the full picture.

Why didn’t you include any letters written by your father?
None of my father’s letters have turned up, sadly.

How much research went into writing “Dear Coach”?
Quite a lot: First, I had to find and get the approval of the letter writer or his/her heir in order to use the letters in a book. Only in one case did I actually hire someone to find the heirs. Mother was a big help because she knew the writers, where they had lived, who they were related to. Many had kept in touch with my parents over the years and she had their addresses. Some lived right here in town and I knew them.

What reaction did you get from the letter writers and their families when they found out about your book?
They were eager to see the letters and willing to provide photographs. Several – Austin Ruth, Ed Boll, and Wayne Schreiber were particularly helpful with information about the others and about college life. Lowell Reidenbaugh, who died before the book was actually published, wrote me notes about practically everyone.

Why did you decide to organize the book by year instead of by letter writer?
With 48 writers, it would have been impossible in one book to tell each one’s story separately, though each would be compelling. Chronology seemed most fitting because of the pace of the war as well as the natural “yearbook” story of college life. I focused on one writer – Emory Stouffer – as he entered college because I had the most documentation about his experience and it provided a good example of what many experienced.

Why do you think the athletes had such a strong relationship with your father?
Dad cared about building character, and that meant he tried to build a personal relationship with each of his players. Many of the athletes were first generation college students and many had not played organized sports in high school, so the experiences they had in many cases tied them more to my father than to their own. I was told by several that Dad was the reason they were in college – he recruited them and/or helped them get the financial support they needed. They told me he was always there for them and that they could talk with him about anything.

As an only child did you grow up with any of these men and women in your lives acting as honorary family members?
I know they were around when I was very young but I don’t have specific memories of them. As I grew older I knew those who lived in or near Elizabethtown, especially LeRoy Reinhold. Others were relatives- like Emory Stouffer and Roy Herr and I would see them often, but both died before I knew about the letters. Later when I retired from business and returned to the area, I would often see Wib Raffensperger, Ed Boll, and some of the others; still I didn’t know about the letters and never talked about WW II with them.