My Father, Gordon Cook Shoeman

Gordon Cook Shoeman, was born in Waukee Iowa on May 24, 1911 to Robert Martin Shoeman and Mamie Greta Cook, life-long Dallas county residents.  Waukee is where my pioneering Pennsylvania Great Grandfather, John Smaltz Shoeman, settled in 1876.  This became the home of the extended Shoeman family over the years and is still home today for several of my cousins.  Dad had three siblings, an older brother, John Burton, and two younger sisters, Martha Madora, and Mary Kathryn.  Small town Waukee must have been a wonderful place to grow up, wide open rural country, and  just a short distance away from the capitol of Des Moines.   In those days it was a place where everyone would have known each other.  Dad never talked much about his early years of growing up in Waukee so I have had a lot of questions in my later years.  How I wish I had sat down with Dad and asked him questions years ago.  With my busy life of working and raising a family I never thought about how important it was and now deeply regret it.

This is my dad's family about 1920 - Greta, Gordon, Burton, Robert, and in front,  Martha.  Daughter, Mary, was not born until 1922.

Dad went into the U.S. Army on December 1, 1930 and served in different locations around the world, including Panama.  He met my mother, Mildred May Merriam of Ogden, Iowa on a blind date and they married the next year on December 27, 1940 in Des Moines, Iowa.  Mom and Dad moved a lot over the next thirteen years with Dad's busy Army life.  They lived at Ft. Benning, Georgia right after they were married, followed by Ft. Sill Oklahoma,  Frankfurt, Germany, and then Cape Elizabeth, Maine.  Dad was sent to Korea after his service in Maine and retired soon after that in 1954.  He retired as a Chief Warrant Officer 4th Class. 

I don't remember anything about living in Oklahoma, as I was too young.   I have somewhat fuzzy memories of Germany but do remember it.  Dad and I got matching German lederhosen, which I still have today.....both his and mine.  I also remember Dad taking us sledding in the winter.   I was between the ages of 2-1/2 and 5-1/2 when we lived in Germany.  In Maine, we lived high on a hill at Fort Williams overlooking the parade grounds and the many government buildings.  Dad's office was in one of those buildings down below and  he would take me to the office with him on Saturday mornings and let me plunk on the typewriter.  I also recall time spent with my dad at the officer's club for special holiday parties and sitting on the rocky coast of the Atlantic Ocean with Dad and my middle brother, Dick.

This was our family in 1952 while we lived at Ft. Williams, Maine.  From left to right:  Jan (me), Reg, Mom is holding Joan, Dad with Jeannie in front, and Gordon R. aka "Dick."

In 1954, Dad went to work for Firestone Tire & Rubber Company in Des Moines, Iowa.  For the next 19 years he worked hard at raising his family of 6 children.   He was 62 when he retired from Firestone in l973.  For the next 30+ years he and my mom traveled all over the U.S. visiting their far-flung children, old Army friends, and many other beautiful places.  Dad also loved to bicycle, exercise, raise his Labrador Retrievers, tend to his roses, and spend time with his family in his retirement years.  My dad used to stop by to take my young daughter out bicycling with him.  He would jump off his bike and onto mine because it had a child carrier.  He did that until she outgrew the carrier.  How she loved to go out riding with her grandpa when she was a toddler.

Dad had this photo taken at a studio in Andover, England in 1944.  He was stationed in England for a period during WWII.

My dad had a strong sense of military regimen ingrained in him having served 25 years in the U.S. Army.    He was tough with us children while we were growing up, demanding a lot, but also demanding our very best.  In some ways, I have grown more like my father with my organization and attention to detail.  I even find myself performing some of my tasks in the precise manner that dad used to do.   My beloved father passed away at the age of 94 on December 29, 2005, two days following Mom and his 65th wedding anniversary.  He is buried at Hillsdale Cemetery east of Madrid, Iowa.