By Dr. Malcolm R. Braid
University of Montevallo Professor Emeritus of Biology
To better understand my relationship with Dr. Eugene B. Sledge, it may be helpful to know that I come from a military family myself, my father having been an Ordnance officer who served on Admiral Nimitz’s staff during WW II and who helped plan what munitions would be necessary for the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and ultimately Japan itself. Dad eventually was medically retired as a full Colonel after 26 years of service. One of my grandfathers retired also as a Colonel after 36 years of service. In fact, my mother was born in what used to be Fort McAllen, Texas, as my grandfather was in the U.S. Army Cavalry chasing after Pancho Villa. My older brother and I were in the U.S. Army, and my nephew served for eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps which included a tour of duty in Iraq.
Photo courtesy of the Auburn University Libraries
I began my undergraduate career at the University of Montevallo (then Alabama College) in 1965. It was during my spring, 1966 semester that I had Dr. Sledge as my General Zoology professor. I found him to be an intelligent, fair, and likeable person. Eventually, I would take at least four courses with him. A group of us Biology Majors became very close to Dr. Sledge during this time, and we began to call him “Uncle Eugene,” as he was an excellent mentor and father figure to us. He advised us not only about academic matters, but about other life concerns as well.
After I graduated from UM in 1969, I entered Auburn University Graduate School. A month later, I received my draft notice, was allowed to remain in school until the end of the academic year, then I reported for Basic Training at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina for training for Viet Nam. I eventually was assigned to the Biomedical Research Labs at Edgewood Arsenal, MD, to work on research involving nerve gas antidotes and snake venom studies. Linda Lee was our section secretary, and since I had assumed she’d been issued to me for life, we were married and I took her with me.
We returned to Auburn so I could resume Graduate School, where I completed the M.S. degree in 1974 and the Ph.D. degree in 1977. I was hired in June, 1977 to join the Biology faculty at UM in the fall of that year. It was a thrill to return and to work with former professors. Dr. Sledge became my faculty mentor, and again served most ably as a father figure, as my Dad had died at age 56 while I was in the Army. Dr. Sledge and I were co-workers for 12 years until his retirement in 1990. His office was next to mine, so I saw him every day. We became close friends.
He was widely read and thus knowledgeable about many subjects. He learned to play classical music on the guitar, had high standards, was obviously patriotic, and had a legendary sense of humor. He was a man of integrity and high morals, and was completely devoted to his wife, two sons, and dogs. He once told me that dogs are the noblest of beasts – with which I heartily agree.
Photo courtesy of the Auburn University Libraries
To illustrate his relationship with most Biology majors, I offer this story. One of the courses he taught for a while was Ornithology, the study of birds. The department furnished binoculars to the students and during lab, he would usually take them on a bird walk on campus beginning with the area around Flower Hill. Once, a student drew his attention to a large dark bird in a tree there. He focused on it, stared almost in disbelief, and stated that it was a double-crested cormorant. This is a bird associated with saltwater, and he could not understand what it was doing almost 200 miles from the coast. Students apparently began snickering, unable to control themselves, and Dr. Sledge realized that he had been had. One of them had gotten into the department’s collection of stuffed birds and mammals, had taken the cormorant to Flower Hill before lab, and had wired it to the tree. Uncle Eugene had a great laugh from this practical joke, as did the students. To be able to do such a thing and to know he would appreciate the humor in it shows well, I think, the respectful yet friendly relationship between this gentleman and his students.
When Uncle Eugene retired in 1990, it ended our professional relationship, but not our friendship. He visited me regularly in my office at UM on frequent occasions, or we would talk at length on the phone, but for me, his absence within the department was a great loss. At his death in 2001, I was honored to serve as one of his pallbearers. It was a great privilege and honor to have counted this unique and most special man as a close friend, and I still miss him greatly.
Tags: Eugene B. Sledge, Okinawa, Peleliu, The Pacific, World War II