I Should Have Asked Him To Tell Me More.

Your grandfather Willis Barry Kittell was born May 26, 1926 in Lansingburgh, NY (now referred to as North Troy). His father, Harry G. Kittell graduated from the Michigan Dental School in 1902 and was one of the 1st full time practicing dentists in New York State and among the 1st to sit on the New York State Dentistry Board. His mother, Edith May Kittell, was Harry's second wife. Like me, his siblings were all half-siblings and much older than Willis.

Though I don't recall specific reasons for this, he was always considered a worry-wart from a young age. Decades later, as a 68 y/o widowed father of a 17 year old me, the reasons for that description of him were obvious. "Gotch'yur wallet?," "Keys too?," "Back by 11," "You better... ." It drove me nuts at the time. He loved summers on Lake Champlain. He had an English setter name Daniel. I assume he was very fond of that dog. I should have asked him to tell me more.

My father played baseball for Lansingburgh HS and was the manager for the football team. He graduated early so he could start school at Michigan in the Spring semester of 1944. He would eventually enlist in the army and be stationed in Okinawa. I never knew why he wanted to leave for Michigan early, nor why he enlisted so late into the second world war. Willis never talked much about his time in the army, except to comment on the irony of his placement in the intelligence department. I should have asked him to tell me more.

He didn't talk much about his time at Michigan much either, except to point out his difficulty with math and the fun he had in his dental fraternity. His friends would tease him about appearing jewish because of his large nose, NY accent and future profession. They once disassembled the car of a friend and reassembled it inside the frat house. He became friends with fellow dental classmate, Julius Franks, who happened to have been the 1st black All-American football player at Michigan.

I should have asked him to tell me more.