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Charles Robert Kemble
C. Robert Kemble (/ˈkɛmbəl/; born August 17, 1925) is a retired United States Army officer and former President of Lamar University. He served under Ferdinand. T. Unger as Executive Assistant to the Director of Operations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He taught American Studies at the United States Military Academy (USMA) from 1964 to 1972 as a permanent faculty member. In 1972 he moved from West Point to Roswell, New Mexico, where he served as President of the New Mexico Military Institute[1]. In 1977 he accepted the position of President of Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. In 1987, after returning to New Mexico, he served for three years as the state’s first Cabinet Secretary for Public Safety under Governor Garrey Carruthers.
Early life and education
Kemble was born on August 17, 1925, in Ottumwa, Iowa, to Roy H. Kemble and Pauline Kemble (née Hoover). The Kemble family traces its history back to Sarah Siddons (née Kemble) an 18th century actor, and Fanny Kemble[2], also an actor and niece of Sarah Siddons. His mother’s family, the Hoovers, were first cousins of Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States.
Roy Kemble had volunteered as an ambulance driver in France during World War I and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for his services. His family owned and operated the Kemble Floral Company in Oskaloosa, Iowa and served customers until Roy’s death in 1945.
The youngest of three children, at age 16 Kemble applied to the Army Air Corps only to be rejected 4F because of a previously undetected heart murmur. A year later he enlisted in the Army Special Training Program at Kansas University having passed his medical by jumping in place just prior to his examination[3].
At 18 he enlisted in the regular Army and was deployed to Europe in the summer of 1944. After crossing the Atlantic on the SS Mauritania, Kemble landed in Liverpool and immediately volunteered for and joined the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. He trained as a paratrooper in Leicestershire and his first deployment in 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment was to Holland as part of Operation Market Garden. Parachuting from a DC-3 on a static line, he flared his chute to avoid trees, but fractured his pelvis on landing. He then spent the next eight weeks recovering[3].
In December 1944, at the onset of the Battle of the Bulge, Kemble and the 82nd Airborne were deployed to Bastogne, Belgium. It was in a foxhole in the Ardennes on December 29, 1944, that he was surprised to learn of his appointment to the United States Military Academy[3].
Kemble entered West Point in the autumn of 1945. In his junior year he replaced Brent Scowcroft as manager of the Army football team and continued the longest unbroken winning record in the school’s history[3]. In March 1949 he met Helen Elfstrom (1923 – 2007), and they were married in four months later in July[4]. They had five children, Christopher (b. 1950), Keith (b. 1952), Cynthia (b. 1954), Geoff (b. 1956) and Carol (b. 1959)[4].
Career
After graduating from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1949 with a BSE, Lieutenant Kemble was assigned to Fort Knox and the Armor Branch school. From there he was deployed to West Germany as part of the 63rd Tank Battalion. As commander of the 1st Armored Division Reconnaissance Troop, he countered incursion threats by East German and Russian troops along the West Germany’s eastern border[5].
He attended the University of Pennsylvania completing his master’s degree in 1955 and from 1956 to 1960 taught English at the USMA. Between 1960 and 1961 he was deployed to 1st US Corps Staff Headquarters in Korea[3].
In 1961 he was appointed to the Pentagon as the Executive Assistant to General Ferdinand Thomas Unger, the Director of Operations, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As a major, Kemble was the lowest ranking officer in the executive office[3]. Kemble served in the Pentagon until October 1963, when he returned to the USMA by Congressional appointment as a permanent member of the faculty teaching American Studies. He received his Doctor of Philosophy Degree in American Studies from George Washington University in 1966. During his time at West Point he established the Fine Arts Forum and created an advanced studies programs for experienced students entering the Academy.
Post West Point Career
Colonel Kemble left West Point and accepted the position of President at the New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI) in 1972 and moved to Roswell, New Mexico. As NMMI president he oversaw the transition from a male-only to a co-educational school. He was an active-duty Brigadier General with the ArmyNational Guard throughout this period until his full retirement in 1990[5].
In 1977 he moved to Beaumont, Texas and served as Lamar University’s president for the next seven years[6]. In 1984 the university’s administrative structure changed to a chancellor system and Kemble served for two years as the university’s first chancellor[7]. During his tenure at Lamar, he established the John Gray Institute[8], served as the president of the Council of Texas University Presidents, and initiated some of first student exchange programs in the United States with the People’s Republic of China.[3]
In 1986 Kemble returned to New Mexico and in 1987 became the state’s first Cabinet Secretary for Public Safety under then Governor Garrey Carruthers.
Later Years
After retiring from the State of New Mexico, Kemble consulted for Booz Allen Hamilton Company for 17 years. Today, he continues serving as his USMA’s undergraduate class president, a position he has held for 74 years.
Publications (incomplete)
The Image of the Army Officer in America: Background for Current Views (Contributions in Military Studies)[9]
Military Awards
- Bronze Star Medal
- Combat Infantry Medal
- Commendation Medal
- Legion of Merit
References
- ^ "Charles Robert Kemble". prabook.com. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
- ^ Humanities, National Endowment for the (1900-04-19). "Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, April 19, 1900, Image 3". ISSN 2572-5904. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Charles Robert Kemble Collection". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
- ^ a b "Helen Elizabeth Kemble". Ottumwa Courier. 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
- ^ a b Marie, Cimarusti (July 2021). "A Salute to Charles Robert Kemble". Sandia Heights & High Desert Living: 4–7.
- ^ Cheryl, Daniels (January 21, 1977). "The University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 27, No. 1, Ed. 1 Friday, January 21, 1977". The Portal to Texas History. Archived from the original on January 21, 1977. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
- ^ Foster, Donna (August 26, 1984). "University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Ed. 1". The Portal to Texas History. Archived from the original on August 26, 1984. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
- ^ Marlow, Susan (March 25, 1981). "Lamar University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 57, No. 40, Ed. 1". The Portal to Texas History. Archived from the original on March 25, 1981. Retrieved December 24, 2023.
- ^ Kemble, Charles (1973). The Image of the Army Officer in America: Background for Current Views (Contributions in Military Studies). Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. ISBN 9780837163833.