Revelations - June 2016

This is a monthly column helping us to get to know our friends and members in a deeper way. We thank Monte High for taking the time to do these in-depth interviews for us every month.
 
     Dale Foreman didn’t want to spend much time talking about his war experience, yet the five months he spent flying over Germany getting shot at were the most intense times of his life. At the age of 19, a few weeks into the spring semester at Texas A&M University, Dale was drafted into the Army. He was soon off to basic training, ground school and pre-flight training, and then on to B-17 training. In September of 1944, he was sent overseas to Peterborough, England. He flew 35 missions. More than 4000 B-17s were shot down during World War II.
     Dale’s favorite story from the war happened after he completed his missions, when he was stationed for two months in France, near the tiny town of Merville. The assignment seemed on some days to consist mostly of playing cards from breakfast to bedtime. It didn’t take him long to get bored, so he decided to check out the town and learn a little French. He was fortunate to meet a seven-year-old girl, Monique Delanoy, who offered to teach him French for an hour every day, in exchange for a candy bar.
     After having dinner with the Delanoy family, Dale began to realize the full impact of the war on the French people. On top of all the destruction and violence, there were five years of extreme rationing. He and his fellow serviceman were much better off, even with their meager rations, than the people of the town. Dale returned to the Delanoy’s home three evenings a week for the remainder of his stay. As a way to thank the Delanoy family for teaching him French, he brought them food and supplies, including coffee and soap, of which they hadn’t seen in five years.
     When Dale returned from the war he went back to school under the G.I. bill. He is very grateful for the G.I. bill, which helped many servicemen returning from the war. Dale decided not to return to Texas A&M University because it is a military school, and he’d had enough of the military. Instead, he enrolled at Texas Tech University.
     Dale met his first wife, Maxine, in a geology class at Texas Tech. Maxine graduated in 1946, and they were married shortly after. Maxine taught classes in the biology department until Dale graduated a year later with a degree in civil engineering.
     After college, Dale decided to try his hand at farming with his brother. He thought it was a noble, honest and healthy way to make a living. The farm was 640 acres, 540 of which they farmed. It was located about halfway between Amarillo and Lubbock Texas. Maxine and Dale had two sons, Auben and Olen.  He decided to give up farming in 1955 because the family was never able to fit in within the local rural community.
     After they moved to town (Lubbock), Dale worked as an engineer for the city for about a year until Maxine and he decided to become teachers. Their thought was that with both of them teaching they would have a good living and have the summers off. So Dale and Maxine enrolled in grad school at the University of Colorado, where both of them would once again teach classes along with their schooling. They loaded up the family and headed to the mountains. Dale and Maxine developed a good routine of teaching and studying and raising boys, so they decided to keep at it for a while. Why not get our PhD’s?
     During this time at the University of Colorado, tragedy struck the Foreman family. On August 12, 1965, Dale and Maxine’s son Auben died. He stepped out of a swimming pool, touched a light pole and was electrocuted. He was 16 years old. This would affect everything for the remainder of Dale’s life.
     After receiving their PhD’s, Maxine taught at Denver University and Dale at the Colorado School of Mines. Dale taught civil engineering at Mines until he retired 26 years later.
When I think of Dale, I think warmhearted. I think true gentleman – gentle man. Greathearted. I’m sure these qualities served him well during his 35 year teaching career. Teaching was very important to Dale. His door was always open.
1989 was another sad year for Dale. Maxine died of complications from Parkinson’s disease. Dale and Maxine were married 43 years.
     In 1990 the world again opened a door for Dale. Dale found Betty, with the help of Betty’s sister who set them up. Betty and Dale have been married 25 years. Between the two of them they have six grandchildren and one great grandchild.
     Betty and Dale moved to Grand Junction in 2003 to be closer to Betty’s daughter Bea. Grand Junction has worked out well for them, and Bea has been a blessing. She has been a great help to Betty and Dale.
     Dale was born and raised in Amarillo, Texas. He was raised in the Methodist faith. Dale had never heard of Unitarians until he was 34 years old. When he found out about them, he joined right away. He liked being able to do his own thinking. He liked that individuals were not told by the church what they had to believe. Dale has been a staunch UU ever since. He just turned 93.
     Life goes on... In endless song...

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