Old Missoula

Louis Herbert Sugg was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1948. He was a Lieutenant, J. G., in the U. S. Navy at that time, having graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis, class of 1944. He enlisted in the Navy in 1938 right out of high school. Two other Sugg brothers also graduated from the Naval Academy; Howard A. in 1940, and Ross E., in 1952. At one point, during WW2, these 3 brothers were all in the Navy, while their father, Andrew, was serving in the Army as a Captain. Another Sugg brother, Max W., died in an airplane crash near Bozeman in 1948. Their sister, Margaret, worked as a secretary at the Naval Academy beginning in 1941.

Louis was born in Jerome, Idaho in 1921. His family moved to Missoula in 1936. His father, A. I. (Andrew) was both a WW I and WW 2 veteran, and taught math at MCHS for 20 years. Louis graduated from MCHS in 1938 and soon enlisted in the Navy. He attended an academy preparatory school and then received his appointment to the academy while serving as an enlisted man aboard a ship. His brother Howard was an instructor at the academy at that time. Louis graduated from the Naval Academy in 1943 under an accelerated program. He received the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade in 1946. He served as an executive officer aboard a submarine and then transferred to Naval Aviation in 1947, earning his wings in 1948.

Louis Sugg and Dosia Irene Callen were married at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. in 1943. She was also from Jerome, Idaho, and attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. They were parents of 2 sons and a daughter.

Louis completed his three-year Oxford scholarship in 1952.

He died in a tragic plane crash in 1953, flying a jet from the USS Coral Sea off the coast of Spain. A Missoulian article in September, 1953 gave some of the details of Lt. Sugg’s accident.

Louis Sugg Dies When Navy Plane Crashes

Lt. Louis Sugg, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. I. Sugg, 244 Woodford St., was killed Thursday in the crash of a jet airplane operating off a U. S. Navy carrier in the Mediterranean Sea, according to word received by his parents Friday.

They said his wife was notified by the Navy Department that the accident was apparently caused by oxygen trouble while he was flying at about 32,000 feet. The report said he must have blacked out and never regained consciousness before the plane hit the sea. The body has not as yet been recovered, the report added.

Survivors besides the parents are his widow, Irene; two sons, Dale and Philip, and a daughter, Katheryn, all of Norfolk, Va.; a sister, Margaret Belle, Washington D. C.; and two brothers, Comdr. Howard Sugg, with the Navy in the Mediterranean area, and Ensign Ross Sugg, with the Navy in Korea. Both his brothers are also Annapolis graduates.

Sugg was graduated from Missoula County High School with the class of 1938. He was a member of the 1937 football team, the Konah staff and the orchestra at MCHS.

He was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University in England in 1948. Previously he had been serving as a lieutenant in the Navy, in which he had enlisted after graduation from high school. In 1940, he received an appointment to the U. S. Naval Academy and received his commission as an ensign in 1943. He was advanced to the rank of lieutenant, junior grade, and in April, 1946, to full lieutenant. He served as an executive officer on a submarine before transferring to the naval air arm in April, 1947. He received his wings in October, 1948. The scholarship to Oxford was effective in October, 1948.

Louis Sugg’s widow, Irene Callen Sugg married Dr. S. K. Heninger Jr. in 1957. He was a faculty member of Duke University.

A Missoulian article in 1949 pointed out that Louis Sugg was the Seventh MCHS student to earn a Rhodes Scholarship. See article below:

Seventh Graduate of Missoula High To Don Oxford Rhodes Scholar Robes

When Oxford university convenes next fall, Missoula county high school will be represented at the English institution for the first time in almost fifteen years. Louis Sugg, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. I. Sugg of 244 Woodford street will be there, the seventh young man to leave Spartan halls for eventual study under a Rhodes scholarship.

Considering that Rhodes scholarships were limited during almost half of the 15 years by Britain’s six years of World war II, Missoula county high school has had more than its share of graduates enter Oxford’s 26 colleges (including four for women). In a normal year only 32 students are picked from the United States. Last year 48 were awarded scholarships in this country, including Ralph Kirby Davidson from the State University [in Missoula], to make up for the war years when none were taken.

Rhodes scholars are selected on a basis of character and personality, scholastic ability, and physical vigor and health. A former age limit, between 18 and 25, has been temporarily suspended to give students who spent those years in the armed services a chance.

Students are selected in districts by a committee of educators. The winner must compete against other students in his college, then against other winners in the state and finally against winners from other states in the district. Final selection is made by a board of Rhodes scholarship trustees at Swarthmore, Pa. Dr. H. G. Merriam of the State University is a member of the northwest district scholarship committee.

The scholarship, which provides an annual stipend to the student, was established in 1903 by Cecil Rhodes, an Englishman who made a fortune in diamonds in South Africa. It is granted to students in England, Canada, and the United States, for two years with a third year depending upon invitation. The stipend, first amounting to 300 pounds, has been increased to 500 pounds since the war.

Besides fulfilling the stipulations of the scholarship committees, a Rhodes scholar must have plenty of ambition and determination. Take Louis Sugg for instance, the latest Missoula county high graduate to be selected.

When he was a student at the high school back in the mid-‘30s, he was probably known to his classmates as an ambitious dreamer. He set goals for himself seemingly beyond the ordinary MHS boy, which he was. He went out for Spartan football but did not earn a letter; he entered declamation contests [where his father was a coach] but did not place. He played high school golf in 1937 and was a member of the Konah staff his last semester in school in 1938.

But he had high ambitions. During his junior year when his older brother, Howard, received an appointment to the Annapolis, naval academy, he said that he, too, expected to be a naval officer some day. The next year as a senior he announced that he intended to compete for the Rhodes scholarship.

Louis Sugg was twice named as an alternate to Annapolis but did not get to go. After graduation in 1938, he enlisted in the navy and came up the hard way. He was sent to the naval academy preparatory school at Norfolk, Va., in 1938, after nine months duty with the fleet. He stood at the head of his class there and on June 9, 1943, he was graduated from Annapolis. He served as executive officer on a submarine and then transferred to the naval air corps, receiving his wings last October.

When Lieutenant Sugg received his Rhodes scholarship award in December he was visiting his parents here while on leave from the navy. He is now with the Atlantic fleet.

Clarence K. Streit of “Freedom and Union” fame, was the first Missoula county high graduate to earn a Rhodes scholarship. He won it while a student at the State University after an active career in high school leadership. During his sophomore year in 1911 he was a class representative in student government, a class reporter for the student newspaper, Kehi-oo-Le, an alternate in an extemporaneous speaking contest and a representative in a state debating contest.

As a junior he was vice president of Boys’ Senate, an organization formed in 1910 for training boys in public speaking. He was prosecuting attorney in a mock trial and editor of the Bitter Root, school yearbook.

During his senior year at MHS, he was leader and only experienced member of a winning debate team, toastmaster at a senior party, president of Boys’ Senate, rated highest in English VIII and was third-place winner in an extemporaneous speaking contest. He founded the Konah and was its managing editor.

Streit did not become submerged in the sea of humanity after leaving high school, but has remained among the local boys who “made good.” He left the University in 1917 to go overseas with the American expeditionary force. He was attached to the archives division of the American peace mission in France and was a member of the honor guard for President Wilson there.

He returned to finish his journalism education at the State University after the war and received his Rhodes scholarship in 1919. However, he attended Oxford only one year, giving up his stipend in 1921 to marry Mile Jeanne Defrance in Paris. In those days a Rhodes scholar had to remain unmarried, a rule suspended for World war II veterans.

Later Streit was a correspondent for several eastern newspapers and reported the League of Nations from 1929 until 1939, during which time he formed his plan for a world-wide union of democracies.

He has written several books, including an adaption into English of the Divan of Hafiz, works of a Persian poet, which was compared to FitzGerald’s translation of Omar the Tentmaker. At present he is president of Federal Union, Inc., and editor of a magazine, “Freedom and Union,” in Washington D. C.

Two members of the class of 1918 at Missoula county high school were later Rhodes scholarship winners, Radcliffe Beckwith and James A. (Eck) Farmer. Although many high school records for their class, lost in the fire which destroyed the school building in 1931, have not been regained, it is known that the two boys were honor-roll students throughout their high school careers. Beckwith won first honors in a freshman declamation contest and was one of five winners in an extemporaneous essay contest in 1916. He was an associate editor of the Konah.

Farmer returned from Oxford, where he studied law, in 1923 to enter the district attorney’s office in New York City, as an assistant federal attorney. He was later made a member of the law firm of Root & Clark. He has remained in New York and at present is a lawyer for the American Telephone & Telegraph company.

Beckwith won first-class honors in the honor school of geology at Oxford in 1923 and received a research scholarship for further study. Upon returning to the United States he became professor of geology at the University of Wyoming, a post he held for many years. Recently he left there and went into business with an oil concern in Wyoming.

Dorr Covell (Kelly) Skeels, class of 1926, was a Rhodes scholar who broke into headlines when an eighth grade pupil at Paxson school, winning an essay contest. He played football for the Spartans, was editor of the Konah, the English class notebook and the Bitter Root, in high school. He belonged to the Drama club and appeared in several of its productions. He won a state chemistry essay contest and was a member of the National Honor society.

Skeels was graduated with honors by the State University before going to Oxford. He later was a member of the Princeton geological survey in a study of rock formations near Yellowstone park and then studied at Princeton university for his PhD degree. He is now a research geophysicist for the Standard Oil Development company in New York.

While Skeels was at Oxford, he was joined there by Harold Fitzgerald, fifth MHS graduate to receive a Rhodes scholarship.

In high school here Fitzgerald was associated with the Drama club, the debate squad and the senior carnival for three years, a four-year honor roll student and a member of the Spanish club and the President of Debate club. He was a member of the National Honor society and won first place in a Colonial Daughters essay contest.

During his stay at Oxford, where he majored in geology, his mother, Mrs. T. A. Fitzgerald moved to New York and the youth never returned to Missoula. Mr. Merriam, who attempts to keep track of Rhodes scholars from this vicinity, has heard from Fitzgerald seldom and his latest work was received during the war when the former scholar was a member of the armed services.

Eugene Sunderlin, 1933 Rhodes scholar, was the last Missoula graduate to receive the honor previous to Lieutenant Sugg. Sunderlin had been editor of the Konah and at 16 was graduated as valedictorian of the senior class. He attended the State University on a scholarship earned in high school. During the war he was an instructor in the department of electrical engineering at the Annapolis naval academy.

 The above article appeared in Sunday Missoulian on February 6, 1949.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349173617/

 A link to a short article about Louis Sugg appears below. It was written by Louis Sugg’s daughter, Kathryn Britton:

https://positivepsychologynews.com/news/kathryn-britton/20070528264