Morris Eugene Smith

Morris Eugene "Gene" Smith (born February 12, 1912 in Nagasaki , Japan , † May 8, 2005 in San Luis Obispo ) was an American tennis player , soldier and lecturer .

Life

His father, Frank Herron Smith, was a Methodist missionary in Japan and Korea . In 1926 the family returned to the United States and settled in Berkeley . Gene Smith studied history and East Asian studies at the University of California there until 1937. During this time he took part in tennis tournaments and won the Canadian Lawn Tennis Championships in Victoria in 1935 . In 1939 he went on a tennis trip through Europe. At the International Tennis Championships in France he was eliminated in the first round, while he was at Wimbledon a . a. reached the quarter-finals with a victory over Roderich Menzel . At the International Tennis Championships in Germany , he won the mixed competition with his compatriot Gracyn Wheeler .

After the USA entered the Second World War , he was a member of the 25th Infantry Division from 1942 . After a year of training at the language school of the Military Intelligence Service (MISLS), he worked as a language expert, translator and interrogator of prisoners of war in the Aleutian Islands , Japan, the Philippines and New Caledonia , where he also came to play tennis. In 1946 he left the army. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal .

In 1946 he took part in the California State Championships in Berkeley, where he was eliminated in the quarterfinals. He now taught history at California Polytechnic State College (later University) in San Luis Obispo and coached the local tennis team until 1954. In 1958 he earned a doctorate in education from the University of Oregon with the essay: A History of the California State Polytechnic College, The First Fifty Years, 1901–1951 . During his further work for the "Cal Poly" he was head of the department of social sciences and founding director of the department of history. Most recently he lived in neighboring Morro Bay .

source

Smith Family Papers on World War II, Special Collections, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif. (PDF file)

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Information on http://www.tennisarchives.com/
↑ According to his entry in the Social Security Death Index .

personal data
SURNAME	Smith, Morris Eugene
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Smith, Gene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American tennis player
DATE OF BIRTH	February 12, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH	Nagasaki
DATE OF DEATH	May 8, 2005
Place of death	San Luis Obispo

[1] Information on http://www.tennisarchives.com/

[2] According to his entry in the Social Security Death Index .