From Lieutenant Willis Schalliol, 1945

File — Box: 06, Folder: 5

Identifier: MSP 314, Series 2, File 4

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Lieutenant Willis Lee Schalliol was close friends with Elmer, and they both were in World War II. They lived side by side for the last five months of Elmer’s life for they shared a tent with their personnel officer, Thomas Black. They became “very good friends in every sense of the word”. He wrote numerous letters to Elmer’s family after Elmer’s death. He shared memories, photographs, and information regarding Elmer’s death with his family to help them find solace and peace. He also wrote a letter to the Purdue Alumni office, telling them about Elmer’s death, which is how the Director of the Purdue Orchestra, Joseph Rogoino, found out about the news. Included in this folder are three envelopes with numerous letters of him sharing the details of his relationship with Elmer Jr, photographs of him and his wife, and details of who identified Elmer's body and burial location.

Dates

Creation: 1945

Creator

From the Collection: Kern, Elmer F., Jr. (Elmer Ferdinand), 1923-1945 (Person)

Access Information

The collection is open for research.

Biographical

Found in his obituary, Willis was born December 20, 1919 in Elkhart, Indiana and graduated from Elkhart high school in 1938. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University in 1942 and a Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering from Stanford University in 1950. He married in 1942 to Ilyff Williams. He served for three and a half years in World War II, serving in the European theater as an artillery reconnaissance pilot (this is how he knows Elmer), followed by the US Army occupation of Japan. He survived the war and had a career in both as a metallurgical engineer and as an administrator and educator with Purdue University. He died at the age of 96 on March 31, 2016.