Grandpa Bill (Maj. William Charles Voegele, Jr.) 1915 - 1983

Originally born to William Charles Voegele Senior and Gertrude Hawkin on the 16th of June, 1915 in the city of Rochester in the state of New York, my grandfather, Maijor William Charles Voegele Junior was an exceptional engineer, a decorated military officer (D-Day to Bastogne and on to Korea), and an enthusiastic photographer. His proclivity to carry his Voigtlander on and off the battlefield and around the world to homes in Japan Germany and Turkey no doubt inspired his children and his grandchildren alike to take up the craft and document the goings on of their own lives as thoroughly as he did. Bill died is 1983 when I was just a kid. My family lived in Hong Kong at the time of his passing and I had just turned 10 years old the week before. For his funeral, my whole family flew back to the United States to bear witness to all the pop and circumstance of a 21 salute and flag folding ceremony before lowering him into the ground at Indian Gap National Cemetery. Earlier in the day, at his wake, lovingly arranged by my grandmother Rita, who would go on to outlive him by almost 30 years, his casket lie open and his lifeless body was the first deceased person I ever saw.

Bill’s personality and laugh was infectious but he could be an incredibly intimidating and a larger than life figure to children. I think of him often with a martini in one hand and a smoke in the other. Now that I am closer to the age he was when he died than I was the last time I saw his face, I wonder how well we would get along. I would loved to have asked him a million questions but I do suppose that there is an allure to the mystery of who he might have really been as opposed to the old man I know when I was just a boy.

Until I meet him again one day in that undiscovered country from which no traveler returns. I have some of the letters he wrote to my grandmother to glean a little bit of his human nature.

The following is a heartbreaking letter written to my grandmother Rita while visiting his parents in Rochester, on emergency leave during the early years of the Korean war - The letter is dated 1951 and at that time Bill, Rita and their two sons would have been living in Japan. The transcription of this letter has not been altered…

From the Office of George B. Hawkin (my Great-Grandfather)

Painting and Decorating Contractor

186 Champlain St., Rochester 8 NY

Tuesday, August 14, 1951

Hi Honey:

Just a short one to say hello and let you know what the latest news from Rochester is.

First of all, I received your cable yesterday about 1330 hours. I was sure glad to receive it and to know that you and the boys are OK. I hope a more newsy letter will follow. Because of Mother I definitely will have to stay longer than my original 30 days. I have wired the Department of Army, Washington through the Red Cross for a two-week extension. The approval has not arrived yet, but I have no reason to believe that it will not come. I believe I told you in the first letter that I wrote that I was due back at Camp Stoneman, California the 20th of this month. With the two-week extension that would prolong the date to the 3rd of September. I sure hope that everything will be settled by then. Believe me this is no fun. The longer I stay in Rochester the more I am convinced that never would I return here to live.

Now for the current news of my dad and mother. – Dad is still dying but ever so slow. There is absolutely no hope for him. I am glad that you are not here to see him. It is not a pleasant sight. He is nothing but skin and bone and his mind is a complete blank. He has to be strapped in bed so that he won’t get up and wander. His hands are encased in fingerless cloth gloves, and the gloves are tied together so that he cannot pull the tube out of his side. When you see someone in his condition you cannot help wondering if mercy-killings are not just after all.  Well, Hun, Dad is no longer a worry to me. If he dies while I am home so much the better. However, I have made all arrangements with the undertaker in the event that he dies after I leave. Mother or no one else will have anything to do. The undertaker will take care of everything.

Mother is my big problem right now. The operation to restore the circulation in her leg was not successful. Some circulation came back in her leg but not in her foot. The result was that she still had terrific pain in her foot. So much so that that she could not stand to have you touch it no matter how gently. Her foot was turning blacker and blacker. It was only a matter of time when gangrene would set it. The doctors, after consultation, decided that her only chance was to have an amputation. This she agreed to and in good spirits. Well, last Thursday they amputated her right leg above the knee. The doctors all agreed that it was a good, clean job and that there would be no complications. However, to date she shows no signs of snapping out of the shock. Physically she is recovering. She looks pretty good. But mentally she is in a depression. She does not seem to care anymore or have the will to fight back. All she wants to do is sleep and the doctors that that is not good for her. They want her to stay awake. She has not eaten anything since the operation and refuses all food because she is afraid that she will not be able to keep it in her stomach. We have all tried everything in our power to interest her in life again, but she will have none of it. I am beside myself to know what to do. The doctor says that if she does not snap out of it in the next day or two, the results are liable to preclude her recovery. God, what a mess. I won’t venture to think what will happen to her if I have to come home before she is on the road to recovery. It will be hard enough even then. I had hopes that she would pull through well enough so that with the aid of a wheelchair and a housekeeper, (who I would hire and pay) that she would be able to get along alright. But now I don’t know. I certainly cannot afford to hire a nurse, even a practical nurse to take care of her. I cannot leave her in the hospital.

Well, Honey, this isn’t a very pleasant letter, so I think I’ll stop.

I have been going up to your mother’s most every night to supper and that is about all I do except go to the hospital. Wednesday night I am scheduled to speak before the local Reserve Officers on the subject of the Korean War. I wish now that I had never agreed to it because my heart is not in it and I find it increasingly hard to concentrate on the subject thoroughly enough to prepare notes. Well, I get through it somehow or another or be rode out of town on the rails. One or the other.

Say hello to the boys for me and tell Mike that I am real proud of him getting his beginner’s button. I have been unable to locate anyone in Rochester who handles Farberware products. Where did we get that coffee pot? Maybe I’ll have to send to the factory for it.

DID YOU PAY MY INSURANCE??????????????

By the way, the next time you see the Murphys tell the Colonel that I send my congratulations. I read the good news in the Army Times. Also bring Joe up to date on my situation and tell him particularly about the extension.

All my love and kisses are your Honey,

Bill