TATUM: Korean War Vet Active In Community

He served at Fort Riley, Kan., and at Fort Benning, Ga., and then was sent overseas to Japan. His wife went over too, and his two oldest children were born in Japan.

Tatum was in the 11th Airborne Division 511th Parachute Infantry Division in Japan from 1948 to 1950, and then the Korean War started. He was a company commander at the time America made a landing at Inchon, Korea. He got promoted to captain. Then he was injured in an ambush and got evacuated to the U.S. After 10 or 11 months in an Army hospital he came back to duty at an Army intelligence school at Fort Riley, Kan., teaching. His career was limited, and eventually he was retired on a medical disability.

He came home in 1953, got a place in Anderson and went to work in the family business selling farm equipment. He became active in the community and was elected president of the Anderson PTA. He served on the Anderson school board in 1954.

Meanwhile, an effort had been under way to start a junior college at Camp Crowder (a training center for the Army Signal Corps that had closed) and Tatum was asked to head up a committee. The committee had to get a bill passed to allow school districts to pool their resources to support a community college. They got the bill passed, allowing McDonald and Newton counties to work together to fund Crowder College. Tatum also spoke to many community groups to gain support for a ballot measure for a tax to support the community college, which passed with 80 percent support, he said.

Tatum served on the board of trustees of Crowder College for 50 years, 47 of those years as president.

“A community college tries to serve the needs of people, whatever they may be,” he said.

Tatum also worked with an organization called the Association of Community College Trustees, helping their boards be better and advising the colleges how to do presidential searches. He worked with 240 colleges over the years.