THE LIFE OF PROFESSOR JOHN H. WRENN

Abstract

‘ On a cold day at Port Hudson National Cemetery last week, I shivered as a pair of Marine sergeants solemnly folded an American flag. My friend John Wrenn had lost his battle. He was 62 years old. He had recurrent pancreatic cancer…. Following a simple, richly personal service, the U.S. Marine Corps paid the veteran final respect, standing at attention through the haunting playing of taps, carefully folding the flag from his coffin and presenting it to his widow. ’ Laurie Smith Anderson, Journalist, The Advocate, Baton Rouge, December 8th, 2006. John H. Wrenn John Harry Wyckoff Wrenn was our former student and our friend. He was born in Jackson, Michigan, and spent his younger years in Arlington Heights, Illinois, where he was known by most of his school friends as Jack. His father, Webster Wrenn, was much older than his mother and was a veteran who had been stationed in China during the Boxer Rebellion. Jerry Orgler, John’s childhood buddy, remembers well that ‘Web’ was a conservative and tough father who believed in protocol and in following the rules. Web’s military experience fascinated John, and by his freshman year in high school he began talking non-stop about joining the military. After his graduation he volunteered for the United States Marine Corps, and was stationed at Camp Pendleton, California from 1962 to 1965. During his time at Camp Pendleton, he was sequestered for the weeks of basic training and by January 1963 he confided to his friend Jerry that his belief in the value of the military was still strong, and he was proud of his service, but military life and the Marines were not for him. To George he once said the Marine Corps was an important period of his life that taught him a lot: especially ‘never …