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MEMORIAL ARTICLE
Published Assembly Jan '90
Louis Nelson Roberts No.15930 Class of 1946
Died 13 January 1986 in Hol1ywood, Florida, aged 60 years. Interment:
Hollywood Memorial Gardens Cemetery, Hollywood, Florida
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Louis Nelson Roberts was born on 30 November 1925,
In Evansville, Indiana. He was greatly influenced by his father,
who was a lawyer and had served in both World War I and World
War II. His father was the city attorney in Evansville when Louis
was growing up, and he retired from the US Air Force as a colonel
with a service connected disability in 1947. Louis attended Culver
Military Academy for five years prior to entering West Point.
Although no one could be cynical and blasé
about Beast Barracks, Louis felt that, after five years at Culver,
he had been through all that before. As luck would have it, one
of his roommates in Beast Barrack and for the rest of his time
at West Point was a fellow Culverite. This made his cadet life
much more bearable. Louis was a great reader. One day the tactical
officer was inspecting his room and pointed to the half dozen
novels and histories on his bookshelf. He asked Louis, "Do
you read these books every day?" When Louis admitted he
didn't, he was instructed to take them down to the trunk room.
At this, Louis later remarked "He must have read a book
once and didn't like it." He was not excited about the USMA
method of teaching. It was much too rigid for his bent of mind.
Louis had a much wider perspective in life than most of us had
as cadets. He continued his reading after graduation. He stated
that he intended to read his way through all English literature.
Later, while serving in Korea, he wrote his former roommate that
he had reached the Venerable Bede.
After graduation, Louis attended the Field Artillery
School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. From there, he commanded a battery
in the 11th Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. His
next assignment took him to Japan with the 24th Division. After
serving as a battery commander, he was a military government
officer in the prefecture of Honshu. The Korean War found Louis
an intelligence officer on the staff of the Chief, Counter Intelligence
Corps, Far East Command.
Louis left active duty in 1955, but he stayed in
the Army Reserve. Again, his father's influence came into play
as Louis decided to become a lawyer. He received his Doctorate
of Jurisprudence from Notre Dame University in 1962, the same
year he married Helen E. Pauszek of South Bend, Indiana. Louis
and Helen moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana where Louis went into
practice. In 1964 he retired from the Army Reserve as a major.
In 1969 Louis retired from his practice and moved to Hollywood,
Florida. Retirement gave Louis the opportunity to continue the
pursuit of his favorite avocation, reading. He never reported
to his former roommate whether or not he got through all English
literature, but I suspect that he did. In addition to his reading,
Louis enjoyed watching all sports; and he and Helen were able
to get in some traveling that they had postponed for years.
On 13 January 1986 Louis died in the Hollywood,
Florida Medical Center. His wife remembers Louis as a generous,
kind, honest, and loyal man. His classmates remember him as intelligent,
having a great sense of humor, and as a good friend. He lived
the West Point motto; he was proud to have been a West Point
graduate. Louis, as you join "The Long Gray Line,"
we are proud of you:
'46 Memorial Project and his wife, Helen
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