Gordon Prange: Difference between revisions
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== Personal life == |
== Personal life == |
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Gordon William Prange was born on July 16, 1910, in [[Pomeroy, Iowa]]. His father was Al, a blacksmith and his wife Johanna.<ref name=desmoine-obit/> He had one older brother Russell. He attended Pomeroy High School where he excelled in baseball and track athletics. He was also known as the class clown.<ref name=desmoine-obit/> He graduated from Pomeroy in 1928 and enrolled at the [[University of Iowa]] intending to become a coach, but switched to history. He obtained his Bachelor's degree, his Masters in 1934, and Doctorate in 1937. He studied at the [[University of Berlin]] in 1935 to 1936, during which he said: "I saw Hitler operate firsthand and heard him speak a number of times,"<ref name=desmoine-obit/> |
Gordon William Prange was born on July 16, 1910, in [[Pomeroy, Iowa]]. His father was Al, a blacksmith and his wife Johanna.<ref name=desmoine-obit/> He had one older brother Russell. He attended Pomeroy High School where he excelled in baseball and track athletics. He was also known as the class clown.<ref name=desmoine-obit/> He graduated from Pomeroy in 1928 and enrolled at the [[University of Iowa]] intending to become a coach, but switched to history. He obtained his Bachelor's degree, his Masters in 1934, and Doctorate in 1937. He studied at the [[University of Berlin]] in 1935 to 1936, during which he said: "I saw Hitler operate firsthand and heard him speak a number of times,"<ref name=desmoine-obit/> |
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As a professor, Dr. Prange was beloved. He would bet students that he would never be spotted wearing the same vest twice. The depth of his preparation was evident in the stacks of folders with notes on the topics he was lecturing. He personally knew many of the key persons involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Mitsuo Fuchida, the man who led the air attack on Pearl Harbor, repeatedly spent time at his home in Maryland. Prange and Fuchida travelled throughout Japan following the war as Fuchida evangelized. Prange often spoke of aging and that the young never knew that time was like money in the bank, but you never made deposits, only withdrawals, that time was the "silent artillery." As well he repeatedly referred to the story of how Faust sold his soul to learn everything, only to cry out at the end, "My God, my God, give me back my youth again." His exams were open ended, lasting as long as a student wished to write. He earned the standing ovations he received. His contribution to the Prange Collection is remarkable. He saved many boxes of censored works from the period of time Japan was occupied by the United States following World War II and had them sent back to the University of Maryland. These would have been destroyed and lost forever. He often complained of their improper storage, until finally the Prange Collection was properly stored and cared for. He spoke a number of languages. His love of history mirrored his love of life and that appreciation he sought to convey to his adoring students. |
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=== Family === |
=== Family === |
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Revision as of 10:17, 22 February 2015
Gordon William Prange (July 16, 1910 – May 15, 1980) was the author of several World War II-historical manuscripts which were published by his co-workers after his death in 1980. Prange was a Professor of History at the University of Maryland from 1937 to 1980 with a break of nine years (1942–1951) of military service overseas, and in the postwar era of military occupation of Japan, when he was the Chief Historian in General Douglas MacArthur's staff.[1] It was during this time that Prange collected material from and interviewed many Japanese military officers, enlisted men, and civilians, with the information later being used in the writing of his books. Several became New York Times bestsellers, including At Dawn We Slept and Miracle at Midway.
Prange's 1963 Tora! Tora! Tora!, published in the October and November issues of Reader's Digest, and later expanded into At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story Of Pearl Harbor, portrayed the attack on Pearl Harbor, and is credited as the basis for the screenplay of the film Tora! Tora! Tora!, which was produced in 1970, while Prange took a leave of absence from the University of Maryland to serve as the technical consultant during its filming. His extensive research into the attack on Pearl Harbor was the subject of a Public Broadcasting Service television program in 2000, "Prange and Pearl Harbor: A Magnificent Obsession", and was acclaimed "a definitive book on the event" by The Washington Post.[2]
Personal life
Gordon William Prange was born on July 16, 1910, in Pomeroy, Iowa. His father was Al, a blacksmith and his wife Johanna.[3] He had one older brother Russell. He attended Pomeroy High School where he excelled in baseball and track athletics. He was also known as the class clown.[3] He graduated from Pomeroy in 1928 and enrolled at the University of Iowa intending to become a coach, but switched to history. He obtained his Bachelor's degree, his Masters in 1934, and Doctorate in 1937. He studied at the University of Berlin in 1935 to 1936, during which he said: "I saw Hitler operate firsthand and heard him speak a number of times,"[3]
Family
In 1937 he married Anne Root, a professor's daughter from Iowa City. They had two daughters and a son. They moved to Maryland where Prange took employment as a history instructor at the University of Maryland.[3]
Death
Prange died on May 15, 1980 in Baltimore, Maryland from cancer. He was 69. 'Prange Park' in Pomeroy is named after him.[3]
Selected bibliography
- Gordon W. Prange (1963), Tora! Tora! Tora!, in Reader's Digest, October & November issues.
All below by Gordon W. Prange, with Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon:
- At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor (1981), ISBN 0-07-050669-8
- Miracle at Midway (1982), ISBN 0-07-050672-8
- Target Tokyo: The Story of the Sorge Spy Ring (1984), ISBN 0-07-050677-9 in which the authors detail the undercover operations of the spy ring headed by Richard Sorge and Hotsumi Ozaki that conveyed highly-secret information from Tokyo to the Soviet Union between 1933 and 1941
- Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History (1986), ISBN 0-07-050668-X
- December 7, 1941: The Day the Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor (1988), ISBN 0-07-050682-5
- God's Samurai: Lead Pilot at Pearl Harbor (1990), ISBN 0-08-037440-9
References
- ^ "Press Release: February 20, 2002 Exhibit of UM Prange Materials To Open at Hornbake Library". University of Maryland Libraries. Archived from the original on 23 Jun 2012. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
- ^ "What to Watch". The Washington Post. December 3, 2006. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
- ^ a b c d e http://data.desmoinesregister.com/famous-iowans/gordon-w-prange
External links
- The Gordon W. Prange Collection Template:En icon and Template:Ja icon at the University of Maryland
- Prange, Gordon W.
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