T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection

ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME: Charles Titkemeyer [1919-2002]

COLLECTION: 4700.0307

IDENTIFICATION: LSU Professor of Veterinary Medicine

INTERVIEWER: Everett D. Besch

PROJECT: LSU History

DATE(S): 18 June 1993

FOCUS DATES: 1939 to 1989

ABSTRACT:

Family background; attends Purdue University and studies agricultural economics; volunteers for US Army Air Corps; enters air corps in 1942; basic training in Kentucky and California; encouraged to forego pilot training in favor of navigation training; graduates as a second lieutenant; becomes crew member of a B-24 bomber; B-24 crew trains for eighteen weeks; crew stationed in England; Ploesti, Romania oil fields was first mission; difficulty of Ploesti raid; bombs airstrip in Vienernustadt, Austria; after leaving the service, Titkemeyer enters veterinary school at Ohio State; graduates in 1949; takes position as an instructor at Michigan State; earns PhD in Microbiology and Public Health; marries Mary Agnes Hoeferkamp in 1947; becomes assistant professor at Michigan State; works in Indonesia for two years on an Agency for International Development (AID)contract through the University of Kentucky in 1960; multiple responsibilities in Indonesia; returns to Michigan State and remains there until 1967; works in Nigeria on an AID contract through Michigan State; in Nigeria during Biafran War; leaves Nigeria prematurely after ten months; lives in Canada for six months to avoid paying income tax; accepts job at LSU in 1969; Robert Lank associate dean; Everett Besch dean; Maurice Morrissette department head; department originally housed in Pleasant Hall; Morrissette and Besch draw plans for new building; department moves to Audubon Hall in 1970; Morrissette and Besch clean Audubon Hall; recalls difficulty planning the layout of the new building; School of Veterinary Medicine receives money to hire contractor; helps establish admission guidelines for first class; recalls three law suits brought against the school charging unfair admission practices; recalls case of Bart Ladd; served as chairman of admissions committee; regrets inflexibility of admissions standards; regrets not admitting a deaf girl to the program who had applied three times.

Tape #: 432

TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 1 hour, 30 minutes

PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 83

RESTRICTIONS: none