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ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME

CHARLES W. PENCE '18

Inducted: 1987

Weighing only 140 pounds, it was obviously a surprise that Charles "Six" Pence made several all-state college football teams his first year at DePauw after transferring from Purdue. He was no less intimidating in baseball as a centerfielder and in basketball where he was a marked man by opposing defenses. He captained the 1916 football team and was elected president of the senior class. But World War I came and he left school early to undergo Army training at Ft. Benjamin Harrison. Wounded in Europe, Pence decided nevertheless that the military would remain his career. During World War II he commanded the 442nd Combat Team of Japanese-Americans from Hawaii; the unit's exploits in Italy and France were immortalized in the 1949 movie, "Go for Broke." His final military assignment was Chief of Staff of the Alaska Defense Command. General Pence retired in 1952 to Columbus, GA and established and became president of The National Bank of Fort Benning in that city. He died in 1961 and was eulogized at a recent reunion of the 442nd by one of his now famous former soldiers of the 442nd, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.