Orville was born on Sept. 6, 1911 to Olof and Ida Eckberg in Manlius, Illinois. He joined one sister, Alma, and two brothers, Arthur and Lawrence. He subsequently had six more brothers and one more sister.
His childhood was quite uneventful. His only complaint that I heard from him was that his mother dressed him for school like the children in Sweden dressed, (dress pants and white shirts, or knickers and bows) and he always wanted to dress like the other children. Initially it seems that the Eckberg family spoke Swedish at home and so the children grew up speaking that language. This apparently made it difficult for them when they started school. One of the older children's teachers is said to have sent a note home instructing the family to speak English around the house so the children would do better in school.Orville always did well in school, participating in sports, dramatics as well as studying hard. He was valedictorian of his class at Bureau County High School.
He was offered several college scholarships but his father did not believe in education and told him he had to stay home and help with the work. Because of this attitude, Orville moved out and went to live with Herbert and Ruth Dremann and worked for them. They were a very devout family and while he lived with them he became a Christian. He liked to tell about his baptism. They were Baptists and were immersed to join the church. The baptisms took place in creeks nearby. The day of his baptism, they had to chase the cows out of the water in order to baptise him.
His father relented and told him he could go to college if he would come home. He enrolled in Bluffton College, in Bluffton, Ohio. He was not happy there and left after a year to attend Augustana College in Moline, Illinois, closer to home. He did not feel it was a Christian atmosphere so after one semester he applied and accepted a scholarship to Wheaton College. He had to work very hard to support himself and keep up his grades. As usual, he also participated in sports, including football and wrestling. He liked to say he was the uncrowned wrestling champion in 1935. He injured his knee in the semi-finals and could not compete in the finals but he had previously defeated the one who was champion.
While in college he was unofficially engaged to a girl from Wyanet named Dorothy Spratt. Just before he graduated she wrote to him and told him she was breaking it off since he would not go in to fulltime Christian service. He was devastated and it was many years before he dated anyone seriously again.
After graduation from college, he taught and coached in high schools in Wood and Winner, South Dakota for three years but decided he needed more education. He left there and went to the University of Illinois to get his Master's degree in chemistry. Upon completion of that degree, he accepted a position as dean of Lenox College in Hopkinton, Iowa. About this time, registration for the draft was implemented. He did not think too much about it until his second year at Lenox when his number came up. He could have avoided it but felt that every young man should give one year to his country.
When he reported for his physical, the examining physician was late coming to the office and he had a long visit with the doctor's assistant, Wanda Paullins. Two weeks later he had a mutual friend arrange a date for him with her. They liked the same things and did a lot together after that.
He had to report to the army in June when school was out but after his initial training he was released because of his age. He was looking for another job and had scheduled an interview for dean of a four year college in Huron, South Dakota when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II. Of course, he was immediately called back in to the service and sent to Chicago to work in the induction station laboratory. In the meantime he and Wanda had gotten engaged. She went to Cedar Rapids to business college in 1942 and they had decided to get married when she graduated as he had been told he would stay in Chicago for the duration of the war. However, shortly before she graduated he received orders to go overseas. They got married anyway, on a three day pass. When he left on the bus to go back to Chicago a bunch of telephone operators were on the bus on a holiday. When he got to his stop, they lined up and said they would not let him off the bus until he kissed every one of them. (at least that was his story.)
He and Wanda had a few weekends together before he left for overseas. He went first to Africa and from there to Italy. While over there, he was given a direct commission in the Medical Service Corps. He never told Wanda that would happen and the first she knew of it was when she got a letter with the notation that it had been censored by Lt. Eckberg.
While Orville was in Italy he did what was a normal thing for him. He made friends with a family and so felt he had a home away from home. He found this poor Italian family. The mother was a dressmaker but had very poor eyesight. As a consequence she had many very bad headaches. He kept them supplied with the army answer to pain, APC's. He also took food to them which made them love him, too. This was a very good way for him to get away from army life for awhile. He also was close to Pisa and Florence and enjoyed seeing those cities.
In 1945 Germany had surrendered and his unit was being ordered to Japan. They were to cross the Atlantic and go through the Panama Canal, an experience he was really anticipating. He wrote Wanda and told her not to worry when she did not hear for a long time as he was leaving on a long trip and would write whenever possible. As their ship passed the Rock of Gibraltar, they received a radio communication telling them Japan had surrendered and they were to go directly to New York. Since he had told Wanda he would be gone for a long time, she was keeping busy withfriends and sometimes spent the night with them. Orville kept trying to call her from New York and finally called her mother to tell her he was in the States and to meet him at a certin hotel in Chicago in two days. He was not sure what time he would arrive but to get a room and wait. Her mother called her at work and gave her the message. She immediately quit her job and went shopping for a new dress to wear when she saw Orville again.
Orville was given 30 days leave and he and Wanda visited his family and hers during that time. When he had to return, he was sent to Tullahoma, Tennessee. As soon as he could find a place for them to live, he sent for Wanda. She arrived just before Christmas. She knew she had the flu but nothing would stop her from having their first Christmas together, she thought. The day before Christmas she was put in the hospital and that was where they spent their first Christmas. They remained in Tennessee until March when Orville was sent to Chickasha, Oklahoma for medical evaluation. He had gotten hepatitis from a yellow fever shot while in Europe and had never fully recovered. Wanda went to Chickasha to be with him again, and this time they lived in a motel and she joined him for meals at the hospital. In July he was ordered to Asheville,North Carolina and by now Wanda was pregnant.Since there were no facilities for dependent care in Asheville, they decided she should go home to Iowa to have her baby. Orville was able to get leave when the baby was due and came to Ryan on September 23. On September 25 Wanda's dad was supposed to be a pallbearer at a funeral and asked Orville if he could drive his cream route for him. Unfortunately for Wanda's father, he had to make other arrangements as Wanda went into labor that morning. David was born late that afternoon in Cedar Rapids. Orville had to go back again when David was 10 days old.
In December Orville was declared physically fit again and sent to Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Again Wanda travelled to be with him for Christmas. She and David took a train (with a sleeper) to go to Texas. Orville had found a motel with a kitchenette for them to live in. They did not have a car, so fortunately the motel was within walking distance of a grocery store. Wanda ordered a portable washing machine (without telling Orville, which she found later was the wrong thing to do) but after he got it assembled he thought it was a geat appliance. In those days we did not have disposable diapers so it was a necessity. The washer was given to Orville's mother when they finally got a regular sized washer and she used it until she died. In late February Orville found a small apartment next to a friend of his and we moved to that place. Because of rent regulations, etc., there could not be a lease and the rent always had to be paid in cash, but we were so glad to have a place besides a motel. Also, because we did not have a car it was again within walking distance to a grocery store and he had a ride back and forth to the laboratory.
In July Orville found that he could not make Regular Army as he was what they called "overage in grade," due to his age when he was first drafted. He decided to take his terminal leave, take his Reserve rank, which was captain, and reapply for Regular Army.
When he took this terminal leave, he had no transportation with which to get to Illinois so he looked around for a car. After the war cars for sale were very hard to find, but he found a 1939 Chevrolet that the owner was willing to sell. He assured Orville that it would get 20 miles per gallon. He bought it for $800 cash and started out. First, he found that instead of 20 mpg, it got about 20 miles per quart of oil used. Then the accelerator linkage fell apart and had to be put back together, then the horn started to honk and would not stop until some wires were pulled. To complete his frustration, they got stopped for a traffic check and Wanda was driving and had forgotten that when her billfold was stolen out of their apartment in San Antonio she had never replaced her driver's license as they had no car at the time. The policeman was very nice and just suggested that Orville do the driving.
Orville spent his leave at his brother LeeRoy's gas station in Wyanet, overhauling the motor, pounding out the dents, painting it, and then with the help of LeeRoy's wife, Doris, he reupholstered it. He hated to trade it in when he bought a new Chrysler in 1950.
Orville always had a running rivalry with his brother, LeeRoy, who he was probably closest to. LeeRoy was a confirmed Ford man while Orville became a confirmed Chrysler man. They had friendly arguments as to the merits of each other's cars over the years, and when travelling, always would brag to the other about who had made the "best time" on their non-stop trips from San Antonio to Illinois, or vice versa, at least the would in the days when gas was cheap. Later, in the 70's when gas became more expensive, they would brag about who had then best mileage. They were always very close.
When Orville reapplied for Regular Army the Army again turned him down, but at the end of his leave, he applied for readmission as a Reserve officer and they reported to Fort Sam Houston again. They lived in the motel-kitchenette again until they got quarters on Infantry Post, a second floor two-bedroom apartment. They lived in that apartment when Douglas was born, December 4, 1948. When the first floor apartment became available in 1949 they applied for and got that one.
By that time Wanda was pregnant again, and Diane was born January 17, 1950. Life was very good. Orville was asked about that time if he was willing to sign an "indefinite category" and be willing to go overseas. He said, "Yes, if I can go to Germany." They agreed, but it was all verbal. Then the Korean War began. Orville knew he was slated to go overseas and was afraid it would be Korea. Wanda told him since he had not yet signed the new category, he should not do it, but he made, what for him was a statement; "My word is my bond." He signed the paperwork and immediately received orders for overseas, for Heidelberg, Germany. Orville had not expected th orders so soon, and had just purchased a house but at least he knew where Wanda and the childen would live when he left, as there was no housing for families immediately available in Germany, and she would have to wait for him to get quarters. In June, they drove to Illinois and he left from there for Germany while thier good friends, the Dremanns, drove Wanda and the children back to Texas where they would live while awaiting orders to Germany.
Orville really enjoyed his tour in Heidelberg, where he was assigned to the 130th Station Hospital. Before his family arrived, he received his promotion to Captain which he had waited for so long. He was now in charge of the laboratory which gave him free rein as to which tests would be done and how. When the family arrived they initially lived in a home which had been confiscated from its German owners to provide room for American families while they were awaiting the construction of American quarters. At this time the Americans were the "conquering Army" and could do pretty much as they wanted to the defeated German citizens. This home was beautifully located on the side of the mountain right across the Neckar River from the Old Castle. After a year or so in this house, the American quarters were available so the family moved to a third story apartment on Romerstrasse, the main street leading to the hospital.
While in Heidelberg, Orville took a trip to Sweden to become reacquainted with his relatives. He stayed in the seaside home of Hjalmar Berggren who went all out to entertain him and his family. The other relatives also entertained often and when he left he really felt the effects of overeating. While in Heidelberg, he also took trips to Italy, Berlin and Switzerland, as well as sight seeing trips around Germany.
When his three year tour in Germany was up he was asked if he would accept an assignment in the Surgeon General's Office in Washington, D.C. where he would again be working under Colonel Kuhns whom he much admired. He was delighted and in 1953 he went there. In the 
summer of 1954 he was to return to Ft. Sam Houston and was all packed when Colonel Kuhns had a stroke and Orville was asked if he would remain. He agreed, thinking it was for a year. The first of December he was informed he had to be out before January 1955 so he hurriedly made arrangements to leave before Christmas. The family had Christmases in Wyanet with his family and Iowa with Wanda's family before leaving for San Antonio. They arrived in San Antonio on New Year's Eve. When he learned that permanent quarters would not be available for several months he took a two bedroom duplex at 114 Clem Road in what was called Wherry Housing, in a housing area then called "Village 1", a couple of miles south of Brooke Army Hospital. He lived there when his fourth child, Debra, was born on June 30, 1955, creating a situation where a family of six was living in a two bedroom apartment! . A few months later they moved to a large two story duplex at 671-A Infantry Post which was much more satisfactory. While living here the last of the family's five children, Daniel, was born on February 3, 1957. The family lived on Infantry Post until the summer of 1961 when Orville was again sent to Germany, this time to Landstuhl. He had lived on Infantry Post so long he was unofficially called "the mayor of Infantry Post."
In the summer of 1961, when he was sent to Germany he worked under a former commanding officer and friend, Colonel John Lukeman, who had been his boss at the 4th Medical Laboratory in Fort Sam Houston. Here, at the 10th Medical Laboratory in Landstuhl, Orville was the Chief of Clinical Chemistry, supervising most of the medical lab tests being done there. While at Landstuhl, he received the news that his timetable of staying in the army until he was 56 was wrong and he had to retire in 1964 because he was a reserve officer. He therefore had to return to the United States in 1964, being assigned to the medical laboratory at Brooke Army Medical Center. He retired soon after, stating that it was the saddest day of his life. Nothing was right for him after that. He took a job in Civil Service doing the same work but he was not in charge, and was, as he said, doing the scut work, and being most unhappy the whole time.
He took up the hobby of woodworking during that time and continued doing that after retiring from Civil Service in 1971. This hobby began, literally, almost by accident. When Orville's mother died, he inherited a few pieces of furniture, which had belonged to her, a couple of antique marble-top dressers. His brothers LeeRoy and Kenneth brought the dressers to San Antonio for him in a truck, but on the trip to San Antonio, one of the two brothers, both smokers, tossed a cigarette out the window and it apparently landed in the bed of the truck, catching the padding and canvas around the dressers on fire. They were able to put the fire out but not before the dressers sustained some major fire damage. In working on the dressers to restore them to their original appearance, he learned many woodworking skills and acquired many specialized tools that he then used to work on other pieces of furniture and to make other wooden items. He made some very beautiful pieces such a bird houses and bird feeders, trivets, lap desks, recipe boxes and more. He refinished and repaired many other items, often for his children. He did enjoy that hobby.
During the 1970's he developed leukemia and kept it under control with oral medication for several years but in 1981 needed to be hospitalized for more drastic chemotherapy. That, with several other medical problems was too much for his system and he died on June 2, 1981 and was buried in Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery on June 4.
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