The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Wickliffe’s Poor ‘gave his life that we may live’
1944 grad won state title, was killed in World War II less than one year later
In the high school archive room at Wickliffe sits a handwritten journal — a symbol of transcendence and tradition for its senior classes in the first half of the 20th century.
Starting in 1926, each graduating Wickliffe senior would sign his or her name into the journal after its possession was entrusted to their class.
For the Class of 1944, the second name signed into the journal is “Bob Poor.”
Clarence Robert Poor — known by his nickname Bobby — has the smallest and shortest signature on his class roll, written in ink and worn by time.
Perhaps modesty was Poor’s preference in that way, but retrospect proves he deserves much more of a platform than that.
On May 27, 1944, Poor became the second track and field athlete in school history to capture a state title.
Less than a year later, he was gone — killed in action as World War II was ending.
As Memorial Day weekend concludes and another state track and field meet awaits, there may be no more appropriate time to tell the tale of a state champion who was a champion in life, making the ultimate sacrifice for his country.
Poor was born June 24, 1926, the third of four children for Clarence, a carpenter, and his wife Barbara. Older sister Bernice and brother Raymond were born in Arizona before the family settled on Norman Avenue on Wickliffe’s northwest side.
Poor was an honor-roll student who earned five letters — two each in football and track and field and one in basketball.
On the gridiron, Poor lettered as a junior and was one of seven returning lettermen in the fall of 1943. Only 16 players came out for the first practices, held from 6:30 p.m. until dark, with Wickliffe’s home games under Coach Paul Muschella played on a field behind the high school on the corner of Euclid Avenue and Lloyd Road.
Poor was a halfback and scored a touchdown in his final high school game, a 13-0 win over Madison on Nov. 5, 1943.
“Clarence Poor, another senior, hung up the final marker on a plunge midway through the third period,” the Painesville Telegraph wrote the next day.
Poor was named firstteam all-WRL at right halfback, deemed “another fine performer for Wickliffe — and a consistent groundgainer” by the Telegraph.
Poor’s greatest success came the following spring in track and field.
In April 1944, during a quad with Shaw, Euclid Central and Willoughby Union, Poor won the high jump and was fourth in the broad jump. He captured both events on May 6, 1944, in a tri with Perry and Chardon.
It was how he peaked in the broad jump that put him in school and area lore.
At the WRL meet, Poor won the event with an effort of 18 feet, 8 inches.
In this era amid World War II, the postseason structure for track and field was much different in Ohio. District meets led directly to state, with an arbitrary number of athletes advancing from each district depending on the year.
On May 20, 1944, Poor competed in the Class B Orange District and won the broad jump, going 20-5 ½.
Poor traveled to Columbus for the state meet the
following weekend and won the Class B state title in the event with a 20-8.
It also emerged that week Poor had not been voted as the outstanding athlete in his class, that honor instead going to Lawrence Martens.
Four days after winning a state championship, Poor and 37 other Wickliffe seniors had their graduation.
The keynote speaker was Dr. William Elgin Wickenden, the president for the Case School of Applied Science. Wickenden told Poor and his classmates, “Life is in three dimensions, and they are I may, I can and I must. The third dimension is the most important. … The greatest achievement of this war will be the recovery of the word must.”
The “must” for Poor came in serving his country.
A little more than three months after graduating from Wickliffe, Poor enlisted in the U.S. Army on Sept. 4, 1944, and was inducted two days later.
His basic training came at Fort McClellan before heading overseas Feb. 6, 1945 — first to Scotland, then to France and, finally, to Germany. Poor served as a private first class in the Army’s 398th infantry, Company G, 100th Division.
“Born in war, manned by many of America’s best, trained to high standards and consistently victorious in battle, the legacy of the 100th Infantry Division is one of singular excellence,” the George C. Marshall Foundation states.
On April 27, 1945, The News-Herald reported Poor’s parents had received word from the War Department their son was missing in Germany. On May 11, it was confirmed Poor had been killed in action the month prior as allied forces pushed toward Berlin.
“His family has received letters from him dated April 4 and 5, saying that everything was fine with him at that time,” The News-Herald wrote. Poor died April 6. After the war, a fellow Wickliffe native, Raymond Pengel, shared with local media his Poor connection.
Despite them both being from Wickliffe — Pengel living on White Road and Poor on Norman Avenue — they had never met until their Army induction.
They trained at Fort McClellan and spent their only furlough as soldiers back home in Wickliffe together, going their separate ways in January 1945. Pengel and Poor corresponded after, but never met again.
When Pengel learned of Poor’s death as the war ended, the assistant supply sergeant insisted on enlisting three more months in
Germany — provided he could get a seven-day furlough to visit Poor’s grave.
“I reached the cemetery, which is near St. Avoid, France, by jeep,” Pengel wrote to his parents. “I had a hard time finding his grave, but after some time I found it. I saw his dog tags, and then I knew it was no mistake. It gave me a funny feeling. I went back to camp after the fourth day.”
Poor was repatriated in August 1948 to Mentor Cemetery. His grave is in the northern reaches of the cemetery, far removed from most of the grounds’ traffic, next to his parents.
There are three stones that honor Poor in his family’s plot. Two, embedded with leaves and grass as seasons turn, are simple markers with date of birth and death and Army designation. An iron eagle noting his service during World War II is nearby.
The third is a larger family stone. At the bottom of the stone is a one-sentence memorial from his parents.
It reads: “In memory of our son Bobby, who gave his life that we may live”
In that journal at Wickliffe, an explanation is given for how the book should be used by each senior class.
“Let every senior class write in this book,” it states. “A bit of verse, a bit of humor, a bit of advice, a bit of history, a bit of admonition, pertaining to class events or class achievements so that this book may reflect more fully the spirit, the life and the sentiments of all senior classes.
“Let every senior’s name be immortalized in this book by his own signature in his own handwriting. Be admonished and mark well, that the traditions of this book be observed.”
His handwriting may have been simple and small, but his story hardly is.
Poor — a Wickliffe state track and field champion who graduated and made the ultimate sacrifice for his country two months shy of his 19th birthday — is immortalized now.
Perhaps as resonating as Poor’s tale might be the Class of 1944 poem in that journal, which proved omniscient for at least one of its seniors to be sure:
“A little work, a little play
To keep us going – and so, good day!
A little warmth, a little light
Of love’s bestowing, and so, good night!
A little fun, to match the sorrow
Of each day’s growing – and so, goodmorrow!
A little trust that when we die
We reap our sowing – and so, goodbye.”