Personal Legacies Column
By Robin A. Edgar

Our veterans who served our country: Paul Nelson
Even though some of our veterans enlisted, they may not have been given the opportunity to serve overseas. Reflecting back, however, they realize that their time and training while in the service helped to shape who they are today.

Tryon resident, Paul Nelson, was born in New York City but his family moved just north of the city, to Westchester County, when he was infant. After moving around quite a bit, they settled in Ardsley, N.Y., a suburban community about 25 miles north of Manhattan, where he attended school from the sixth grade through high school. While attending Alfred University in New York, he decided to enlist in December 1942 in order to choose his branch of service. The following February, he had to postpone his studies when he was called to active service in the Army Air Corps.

“After basic training in Atlantic City, N.J., I was sent to Syracuse University in New York and then to San Antonio, Texas. Then I was sent to a Gunnery School in Harlingen, Texas and hoped to go overseas when I completed that training, but was sent to Instructors School in Ft. Myers, Fla. instead. With my Military Order Specialty as an instructor I could not be sent overseas and was sent to Westover Field in Springfield, Mass., where I was an instructor for 15 months until I applied and was accepted for Chemical Warfare (OCS) training at the Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland in order to get to go overseas.

“Unfortunately, the war in Europe ended in the middle of that program and I was returned to Air Force for reclassification and applied to go back to Harlingen, Texas for B-29 gunnery training, hoping to be sent to Japan. Halfway through that training, the war in Japan ended and I chose to leave the service and was sent to separation centers in Lincoln, Neb. and then Boca Raton, Fla. in order to earn enough points to be discharged at Ft. Dix, N.J. on Feb. 19, 1946. It depends whether it is wartime or peace, but I think it takes a certain type of personality to make the military your career.”

“Although I did not see any action while I served in the Army Air Corps, the experience helped to make me the man I am today. As an only child growing up, I was basically a shy person and my time in the service taught me how to get along with people of varied backgrounds. During that time, I matured as an individual and was exposed to various management styles and became confident that I could manage and work well with a variety of people, given the opportunity.”

After his discharge, Nelson married his sweetheart, Margaret Hayes in 1946 and they eventually had three children, Bruce, Mark, and Janet. Going back to his studies, he graduated with a B.S. in foreign commerce from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1949 and worked with a large Sears store in the D.C. area as customer service manager and then as assistant superintendent.

Continuing to put his management and people skills that he learned in the service to use, he went on to obtain a masters in hospital administration from Washington University in 1959 and worked as the assistant administrator at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, Kan. and then as the administrator at Albion Community Hospital in Albion, Mich. and Bixby Hospital in Adrian, Mich.

Retiring in 1984, he obtained a specialist degree in gerontology from the University of Michigan before he and Margaret moved to Florida for 18 years. They moved to Polk County in 2003, where he wrote about 100 humor articles for the Tryon Daily Bulletin and served in a variety of volunteer activities.

Currently, Nelson is the newsletter editor at White Oak, on both the Rotary and the ICC Foundation Boards, and is active in Thermal Belt Friendship Council. He is also writing a book about his hospital career and his philosophy of what a hospital should be.

If you are a veteran and would you like to share about your experience in the US military, please contact Robin Edgar at 2robinedgar@gmail.com or call The Tryon Daily Bulletin at 828-859-9151.