"Ah, Mr. Norris, I see you've decided to take the final." Oops!
I had noticed that my roomie at East Texas State College, Noel Reed, had forgotten a pamphlet that he needed for the final exam in German I. He would need to translate one of the articles in it, so I rushed up to campus to take it to him. As I turned to leave the classroom, having delivered the pamphlet, I was face-to-face with Dr. Lawrence McNamee. "So, Mr. Norris! You decided to take the final?"
Well, I had nothing else scheduled for the next hour and a half, since I had been taking the course - and doing well enough - until the spring Chorale tour.
I shrugged my shoulders and mumbled, "Why not?" I had been helping Noel prepare for the test, so I knew the material. Well, I took the final and pulled a B in the course! Of course, that was far from enough to keep me from going from Dean's List to Academic Probation in one semester - my infamous Spring of 1963. Oh, well.
This was not my first course under Dr. McNamee. As a Physics Major, I had previously taken an English Literature course, basically a Shakespeare course, that he taught as part of the General Studies Required Course Program. The man was a mesmerizing teacher. So, when he was tasked to put together a German language curriculum, I was an enthusiastic enrollee.
Along the way, I had heard a bit about his service as a translator at the Nuremburg War Trials and his earlier undercover work on the Continent during World War II. I was actually under the impression that he was a Brit and had served in MI-5 or MI-6, rather than a Pittsburg-born baseball player (He once had a tryout with the Pirates.) and boxer who served in the OSS. He even made a few passing remarks in class about how his flawless German and his reddish-blond hair made it easy for him to pass as a German.
I returned to East Texas State (then) University for the Spring Semester of 1965, now as a Business Major. I soon met up with Dr. McNamee on campus. and we chatted for a bit. He remarked that that German class had really gone very poorly. He remembered my background and ended up hiring me as a tutor for his daughter in 7th Grade Math.
Flash forward 15 to 20 years. I'm browsing through the Dallas Morning News one Sunday morning, and I happened to notice a letter to a column from Archie Moore. The Archie Moore? Yes, the former light-heavyweight Champ and American Goodwill Ambassador was asking a question. "In my travels all over the world, I have rarely found myself in a situation where no one spoke English. Worldwide, how many people speak English?", or words to that effect. And then what really grabbed me? The Columnist was Dr. Lawrence McNamee! Sadly, I have never been back to (now) TAMU-Commerce.
Dr. McNamee passed away on July 17, 2006, at age 89. RIP, sir.
A&M-C's renowned Prof McNamee dies - North Texas e-News (ntxe-news.com)
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