Hugh Cort, 89, of Spanish Fort, died Jan. 27, 2014 of complications from a stroke.
Hugh grew up on army bases all over the United States.
He was born in Fort Sill, Okla. on April 4, 1924. Next stop was Fort Hoyle, Md. The family then went by ship in 1927 to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii where his father was stationed, and where his father played polo against George Patton.
Family tradition states that Hugh’s father told Patton that if Patton didn’t clean up his language the match would end.
“War” and family stories were always a big part of Hugh’s life.
After leaving Hawaii the family went to Fort Lewis, Wash., where Hugh skipped kindergarten and went into first grade, all because a little girl named Mary Leach told him to come over to her line instead of the line he was already in.
This story has always made a big impression on Hugh’s youngest granddaughter, Belle, who is now in sixth grade. Surely, his great-grandson, Nico, who was just born on Jan. 2 in Maryland, and his great-granddaughter, Sophia, who will be starting first grade next year, will also like this story one day.
It wasn’t the last grade he would skip. Fifth grade was also bypassed when the family moved back to Fort Sill, Okla. Hugh always insisted that these two “skippings” helped him in life because instead of getting drafted into World War II with no high school diploma, he was able to enter the service with a diploma plus one year of college.
His other grandchildren, Caroline, Kaylee, Keegan and Luke, should take note.
After finishing eighth grade at Fort Sill and then ninth grade at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, his family moved to Ames, Iowa where his father was an instructor at the college.
Hugh went to 10th and 11th grade at Ames High. In the 1940 Ames High School “Spirit” yearbook, Hugh is listed under “Complexion” as the “Ideal Ames High Boy.” He was not proud of winning this category.
In Iowa though, he did have a job de-tasseling corn for research projects. He also saw his first college football game, Iowa State vs. Oklahoma.
Hugh did not graduate from Ames High because his father got transferred to Fort Knox, Ky.
Because there were many army transfers at this time, the basketball team at Fort Knox High School needed players and, according to Hugh’s 1940-41 diary, his senior basketball season in this small town in Kentucky was a big deal to him.
He kept meticulous records of all the games with everyone’s points totaled.
Later in life when he was married, he lived in one little town they had played against named Vine Grove.
In Kentucky, there were also many family stories. He once got stuck in a small cave he was exploring and he thought he was going to die. He said he wasn’t worried about himself but rather how the incident would affect his father’s military career!
Hugh’s own military career ranged from the Cold War to Dec. 7, 1941.
In the Cold war, he patrolled the border between Germany and the present-day Czech Republic. His only daughter Meredith was born in Germany.
In the Korean War, he served as a forward observer and a liaison officer between the 70th Tank Battalion and the First Calvary. The 70th was activated out of Fort Knox, where his oldest son, Hugh III, was born.
In World War II, he was in the Philippines at the end of the war serving as a general’s aide. From the Philippines, he sailed to Japan on LST 1062 and spent two years there in the Army of Occupation. His father, mother and his younger sister were also living in Japan, serving with the U.S. military.
Hugh played on a football team for the 25th Division and evidently they were not very good because they won only one game all year and that was against the division based in the northern Japanese town of Sendai.
After this game in Sendai, the team went out on the town and celebrated. Hugh, being the historian that he was, knew that his grandmother, Elizabeth Poorbaugh, had been a Christian missionary in Sendai in the 1880s.
All that night as the party progressed, he told anyone and everyone that he was the grandson of this missionary who had humbly started a school in the town. The next morning he was awakened at the hotel by the coach who said “Cort, get on your best dress uniform and report to the lobby.”
When he came down to the lobby, he saw a long line of elderly Japanese ladies wanting him, as a direct ancestor of this missionary, to sign their Bibles! He said it took him about two hours to sign all the Bibles.
Another direct ancestor of Hugh’s was ordained a Methodist minister in Georgia in the year 1806 by Francis Asbury.
Hugh’s grandfather, Cyrus Cort, who married Elizabeth Poorbaugh, was also a man of the cloth, serving congregations in Pennsylvania, Iowa and Maryland from 1864 to 1914.
Hugh was a founding member of St. Andrew’s Church in New Providence, N.J. under the guidance of Canon Shreve and also of St. Stephen’s Church in Cahaba Heights, Ala. under the guidance of Doug Carpenter.
Hugh was a graduate of the University of Missouri. After the army he worked for Western Electric in Hinsdale, Ill.; Bell Labs in New Providence, N.J.; Lockheed and Coca-Cola in the Atlanta area; and the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
In Alabama, he lived in Birmingham, Pond House, Huntsville, Florence, Fairhope and Spanish Fort.
He was preceded in death by his sister, Betty; his first wife, Vi; and his second wife, Marion.
He is survived by his wife, Dawn; his sister, Georgia; three children; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
He loved to fish and he loved historical research. He lived his life with honor.
His medals included the United Nations Service Medal, Korean Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Republic of Korea Medal, Presidential Unit Citation Medal and the Purple Heart Medal received on Sept. 15, 1950 by a shell fragment wound near Taegu, Korea.
He was on the first hospital ship back from Korea with wounded soldiers. It came to Fort Lewis, Wash., where his wife, Vi, came from Kentucky to meet him.
A memorial service will be held Saturday at Westminster Village in Spanish Fort.
Interment will be at the Pond House Retreat Center, located between Pell City and Talladega.
