Steve Hempelman

Steve (Charles Steven) Hempelman was a friend of Tom from his years at Northwestern. They wrote to each other during World War II.

Steve Hempelman, Tom and Elaine
Steve Hempelman, Tom and Elaine, July, 1942

Steve graduated from Northwestern in the class of 1942 with a B.S. degree in education, served in the Navy, and returned to Northwestern for a Masters in Business Administration in 1948.

LST 58 preparing for Operation Apostle, the retaking of Norway at the end of WWII
LST 58 preparing for Operation Apostle, the retaking of Norway at the end of WWII. Photo courtesy Navsource.org. C. 2017, all rights reserved.

During the war, he was an Ensign in the Navy, and assigned to LST 58 (Landing Ship Tank), which participated in Operation Tiger (practice landing of Allied troops on Slapton Sands, Devon, UK.) and the Normandy Invasion (D-Day, June 6, 1944).

Steve was born in 1921 in Rhode Island, and later moved to Wisconsin. He married Alice Wynn in 1975. They had no children, and she died in 1986. He died in 2001 at age 80 in an assisted care facility in Shelby, Ohio.

Letters:

A Young Man Went Off to War