47. Letter to M/D, December 25, 1944, Box 74.
48. Ferrell’s Bronze Star Medal certificate, August 23, 1945, Box 74.
49. Elizabeth Duffy and Idana Goldberg, Crafting a Class: College Admissions and Financial Aid, 1955–1994 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), especially pp. 73–84; Michael P. Riccards, The College Board and American Higher Education (Madison, WI: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2010), 44–45; Peter Schmidt, “A History of Legacy Preferences and Privilege,” in Affirmative Action for the Rich: Legacy Preferences in College Admissions, ed. Richard D. Kahlenberg (New York: The Century Foundation Press, 2010), 33–69.
50. Duff and Goldberg, Crafting a Class, 80.
51. Ibid., 82–84.
52. Leonard Cassuto, The Graduate School Mess: What Caused It and How We Can Fix It (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), 33–43.
53. Schmidt, A History, 40.
54. Yale was an all-men’s school at the time, thus gender comparisons were irrelevant.
55. Riccards, The College Board, 44–45; H. C. Allen, “Samuel Flagg Bemis,” in Pastmasters: Some Essays on American Historians, ed. Marcus Cunliffe and Robin Winks (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), 204.
56. Letter to Ferrell from Leonard Lebaree, June 15, 1948, Box 74.
57. Lawrence Kaplan, “Robert H. Ferrell: An Appreciation,” in Presidents, Diplomats, and Other Mortals: Essays Honoring Robert H. Ferrell, ed. J. Garry Clifford and Theodore A. Wilson (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007), 316–317.
58. One document suggests that the Selective Service Board denied Ferrell’s application to enlist, contrary to his telling. See letter, H. A. Sipher to Robert Ferrell, June 19, 1942, Box 74.
59. V-Mail, to M/D, December 31, 1942 and May 23, 1945, Box 74.
60. Letter to M/D, August 19, 1942 and “Monday Evening” (circa July 1942), Box 74.
61. Ferrell would later arrive at West Point Academy as a visiting history professor.
62. Letter to M/D, August 30, 1945, Box 74.
63. Letter to M/D, December 25, 1944, among other letters, Box 74.
64. Travel booklet, for itinerary, and see example letters to M/D, May 6, July 18, August 8, September 1, 4, and 9 (all 1943), Box 74.
65. “Bob Ferrell Describes India as Weird and Mysterious,” (newspaper article, circa January 1943), Box 74; see also letter to M/D, December 25, 1942, Box 74.
66. Letter to June (Ferrell’s brother, Ernest Jr.), December 27, 1942; postcard, Ferrell to Ernest Ferrell Sr. (Dad), December 8, 1942, Box 74.
67. Letters to M/D, April 13, May 6, and September 1, 1943, Box 74.
68. Letter to M/D, May 6, 1943, Box 74.
69. Letter to M/D, May 6, 1943, Box 74.
70. Letter to M/D, February 28, 1943, Box 74. Later, Sergeant Ferrell turned tour guide for Army buddies while revisiting Palestine and other sites and complained that travel can be difficult during wartime, “because transportation is erratic and crowded, and the hotel situation is tough. . . . [But we] didn’t have too much trouble.” By this time, Ferrell was enjoying flying to his destinations too. Letter to M/D, August 3, 1943, Box 74.
71. Letters to M/D, September 27 and November 25, 1943 and circa November 1942, Box 74.
72. Letters to M/D, September 27 and November 2 (V-mail) and November 25, 1943; July 7 and October 2, 1944; letter, Venna Patterson (American Missionary Society, Cairo, Egypt) to Edna Ferrell, October 18, 1943, Box 74.
73. Letter to M/D, February 8, 1943, and letter to June, August 5, 1943, Box 74.
74. Letters to M/D, July 2 and 4, August 3 and 17, September 6 and 14, (all 1943); June 20, August 26 and September 1 (letters #1 and #2), (all 1944); January 22, February 20, and March 11, (all 1945); letter to June (Ernest Jr.), March 11, 1945 (all Box 74).
75. Letter to M/D, July 3, 1943, Box 74.
76. Letters to M/D, June 20 and 24, August 26, September 1 (letters #1 and #2) (all 1944). For 1945 trips before the official end of war in Europe (May 8, 1945), see letters to M/D, January 22, February 20, March 11 (all 1945).
77. Letter to M/D, January 22, 1945, Box 74.
78. Letter to M/D, March 11, 1945, Box 74.
79. Ferrell is likely referring to the Sainte-Chapelle built by King Louis IX to house holy relics in the Palais de la Cite. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/architecture/sainte-chapelle.htm.
80. Letter to M/D, November 19, 1944, Box 74.
81. “Parts Unknown” was the popular twenty-first century exotic travel show of the late Anthony Bourdain.
[H]aving both Lila and Lou ‘on the string’ makes me think or conclude that you are getting to be quite a ‘Ladies Man’.
—Aunt Ocie Brown (Letter to Robert Ferrell, September 8, 1953)
Lou is coming out here this spring for some of her vacation. . . . Trouble is that I’m all set to go and she is not. . . . Right now it would not take much bait from any line to bring me in.
—Robert Ferrell (Letter to Bob and Kit Siller, February 1, 1953)
By the time Robert Ferrell came to Indiana University as an assistant professor in the fall semester 1953, he was a rising star in the field of history. Recognizing the merits of his first book, Yale editor Eugene Davidson looked forward to guiding the second volume, American Diplomacy in the Great Depression.1 Davidson, as with other press editors (including Bernard Perry at Indiana University or Beverly Jarrett at the University of Missouri), would become both a good friend and publishing confidant to the young Hoosier historian, seeking him out as a consultant.2 The IU position came partly due to his connections with Samuel Flagg Bemis, and their relationship also brought more opportunities to publish, including a secretary of state volume and a biography. Ferrell’s professional network extended well beyond Indiana too as he served as a highly sought-after lecturer at more than a half dozen universities, including a Carnegie Visiting Assistant Professorship at Yale during 1955–1956 and year-long stints at the American University in Cairo and military academies, the Naval War College, and West Point. Several schools attempted to recruit him permanently.3 At IU, Ferrell was coming into his own as a popular teacher and mentor.4
Yet the ambitious Ohioan-turned-Hoosier had reached an age where other personal agendas began to gain some attention. Early on, Bob did not have a wife to share in his success, even as there is evidence that the fairer sex found him desirable. Before heading to Bowling Green State University (BGSU), he enjoyed assuming the romantic role of Anthony to swooning classmate Cleopatra and Romeo to Juliet.5 But that was kids’ stuff no doubt, and thirty-year old Bob was no youngster in the summer of 1951 when he met a young girl (a Fifties-era term for a woman) at his cousin Christine’s wedding to Robert Bryant.6 The meeting was too brief to be of any moment at the time, but the two, Bob and Loueva (Lou), found themselves seated next to each other at a Thanksgiving Day dinner later that same year, likely orchestrated by Chris (i.e., Christine), to allow for more intimate exchanges.7 Lou would recall the sit-down affair as a high point in her time with young men and as a reminder of how much she enjoyed Bob’s companionship. They met at least two other times before the future Indiana scholar shared the relationship with his dad, the first time in Washington, D.C., while Ferrell worked as a research specialist in aerial targeting for an Air Force