Orville Eckberg was born on September 6, 1911 on a farm near Manlius, Illinois, the
After high school Orville went to college; his college career was marked by several transfers before he finished. He started at Bluffton College in Bluffton, Ohio before transferring to Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois for a semester. Finally he settled on Wheaton College where he completed his education in chemistry and education. During his college years he remained active in sports and played varsity football and was on the westling team until he hurt a knee during a match. He graduated in 1935, in the depths of the depression, but found employment at the high school in Wood, S.D., where he taught science and math, plus he coached
In 1938 he returned to academic life and entered the University of Illinois to do Masters work in chemistry, completing his work in a year and receiving his advanced degree in June 1939.
With his new degree, Orville once again looked for employment, and this time found it as the dean of a small two year college in Hopkinton, Iowa called Lenox College. He handled the responsibilities of being dean and in addition he taught chemistry and education. He remained at Lenox until he was drafted in the military buildup in 1941.
Having received his draft notice, he had to leave Lenox and reported for his draft physical at the offices of Dr. Ed J. Goens, MD, and his brother Don J. Goens, DDS in Manchester, Iowa. Despite being drafted, this was to be his lucky day. The medical assistant and dental tech was a young lady named Wanda Paullins, who was surprised to see such a young man walk in, as she had heard the next patient was a dean of a college and expected a much older person. Orville and Wanda got along very well, as we know now, and began dating. Orville was sent to Camp Grant, Illinois for basic training, and then was released from the service in October 1941.
Once again he was looking for employment, helping his brother Lee Roy at his gas station, and considering his options when a few weeks later the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He was immediately called back into the Army.
In January 1942 he worked at the induction station in Chicago. He was there for a year, managing to get away to see his family and Wanda from time to time. In 1943 he was sent to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin to join the 35th Field Hospital. This unit trained together and moved, as a unit, to the east coast to ship out to the war. On September 3, 1943, their ship left for North Africa, landing at Bizerte, Tunisia. He had, however, found time to get married when he and Wanda said their vows on June 6, 1943 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a ceremony witnessed by her sister, Marian, and Marian's husband, Lloyd Lee.
Up until this time Orville had been an enlisted man with the rank of T-5 or Tech-5, but on March 18, 1944, after the unit had moved to Erchie, Italy, he got a direct commission as a second lieutenant in the Sanitary Corps. When the unit moved
Arriving in America, he landed at Camp Kilmer, N.J. and then went on to Camp Grant, Illinois where he was processed by his brother, Lester and given 45 days of R & R.
His unit was deactivated in Camp Crowder, MO in October 1945 and he was sent to Camp Forrest, Tennessee, where he was again a lab officer in a POW camp. Wanda joined him here. He developed hepatitis, apparently from a Yellow Fever immunization, and so was sent for convalescence to Borden General Hospital in Chickasha, Oklahoma, for about two months before being sent on to Moore General Hospital in Swananoa, N.C. Here, a medical board recommended he stay in the military because he needed treatment for his hepatitis, so he ended up in Fort Sam Houston, Texas in November 1946 with his wife and young son, David.
After this he remained in the military continuously for a total of 23 years. He and his family mostly shuttled between Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas and Germany, where they lived for three years in Heidelberg and later three more years in Landstuhl,
Along the way Orville advanced in rank and finally retired from the Army in 1965 as Lieutenant Colonel. He resumed his work as a clinical chemist at Brooke Army Medical Center as a civil service worker, retiring from that position in about 1973. Thereafter he kept busy around the house with his woodworking hobbies.
Orville developed leukemia in the mid-seventies and did well, despite the disease, for many years, before finally succumbing June 2, 1981 at the same Brooke Army Medical Center he had worked in so long. He was buried in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.
He accomplished a great deal during his lifetime, having been born into a poor immigrant farming family but nevertheless being able to find a way to go to college and attaining an officer's rank in the military. During his life he and his wife raised a family of five children, David, Douglas, Diane, Debra and Daniel.
fourth child of Olof and Ida Eckberg. The earliest picture we have of him is as a two year old child sitting with his older brothers and sister. He lived on various farms with his family and attended the local schools, the Johnson School early on, and later the Bureau County High School where he graduated as valedictorian in his class. Orville played football and basketball during his high school years and was, apparently, very active in many school activities.
football and basketball and was assistant superintendent from 1935 until 1937. He then moved to Millboro, S.D. to be the principal of the high school there, for one year.
further into Italy, to Naples, Leghorn and Florence, he worked in a POW camp, keeping conditions fit for the German and Italian prisoners, and working in the medical laboratory. He then moved into Germany as the European war ended, being stationed briefly at the 103rd Station Hospital (probably in northern Italy). However, as that war came to a close, the conflict in the Far East was still being fought and so, in August 1945, he shipped out toward Japan. Luckily, as the ship passed the Straits of Gibraltar they heard that the war in Japan was over and they were redirected to New York.
with one brief, one-year stop in Washington, D.C. in 1954 when he worked in the Pentagon. He worked in medical laboratories the entire time, generally having the title of Chief of Chemistry and Toxicology.
Orville and a "crosswise Case", a tractor like the one they used on the farm as he was growing up. Taken near New Braunfels, Texas, about 1975.
Orville with his first grandchild, Jonathan Douglas Eckberg, in Orville's home in San Antonio, Texas. Early 1971.
Orville in his later years; sitting in his favorite chair in his home in San Antonio, Texas.
For more information about Orville, find his name in the Genealogy section of his web page and open the "Notes". Many news clippings about him have been transcribed there.
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