Lt. Col. William S. Lawton, Jr.
Profile -- (Winter 1999-2000 Newsletter)
[interview below]
Bill stood on the back porch of his family's tri-level house
tucked in the Punch Bowl above Honolulu and watched the bombs
drop. He had just graduated from high school and was an 18-year-old
freshman studying engineering at the University of Hawaii.
He had been at an officer's club the night before and didn't
attach any importance to the bombing noises he heard when
he woke up that following Sunday morning. The Coast Artillery
often tested its guns at that time.
Only when he heard the phone ring, and his father, then-Major
William Lawton, answer with a string of "Yes, sirs,"
hang up and yell, like he never had, "Billy, get up here
right now, the Japanese just bombed us, we're at war, fill
up the bathtubs with water, take your mother and your brothers
and sisters to the basement, and then report to the air raid
warden," did he realize that life as an Army brat had
more consequences than just fun tours around the world.
Young Bill was a member of the University of Hawaii ROTC
unit, and after President Roosevelt addressed Congress later
that fateful December 1941 day, he was called into active
service by Proclamation of the Military Governor. Thus was
the beginning of what was to become a distinguished military
career for him.
Military blood ran through Bill's veins. His father was a
West Point grad, class of '22, who ascended to the rank of
Lieutenant General. Bill was in the class of '47 and later
would see both his brothers, a brother-in-law, a son-in-law,
three nephews, and a granddaughter attend this prestigious
military academy.
By 1947, post-War action had subsided, and he was sent to
complete basic infantry officer's training at Ft. Benning,
Georgia. He was then honored with an assignment to the 7th
Infantry of the 3rd Division, which had the distinction of
having been commanded by three U.S. Presidents: Jackson, Grant,
and Eisenhower. The Korean War broke out and he rose quickly
to the rank of Captain in command of a rifle company and was
later dispatched to serve as an Assistant Secretary of the
General Staff to General Mark Clark at Far East Headquarters
in Tokyo.
In 1956, he returned to the U. S. for a 10-month infantry
officer training course, after which he was sent to the ROTC
detachment at the University of San Francisco. There he became
acquainted with a young philosophy instructor, Dr. Ron McArthur,
and his colleague, Dr. Jack Neumayr.
Late into many evenings, they and others would talk about
the plight of modern Catholic education. Lawton, by this time,
was pursuing a history degree at the university there. McArthur
and Neumayr eventually introduced him to four other confreres
of theirs, Marc Berquist, Dick George, Peter DeLuca, and Frank
Ellis, who hailed from St. Mary's College in Moraga. These
seven would, a decade later, become the founding board members
of Thomas Aquinas College, with McArthur serving as president.
But in 1959, Lawton was sent to Paris to serve as a liaison
officer to the French Army to work on the plans for relocating
the U.S. European Command Headquarters in the event of Soviet
aggression. In 1963, he returned to the U.S. to serve as a
Battalion Commander in the 101st Airborne Division, becoming
the only Major in the Corps to hold such an infantry command.
The following year, he was assigned to the next hot spot on
the world stage, Vietnam, where Gen. William Westmoreland
assigned him first as sector commander and advisor to the
Governor of the Kien Tuong Province, and subsequently as commander
of the famed "Bravo Detachment" (B-41) of the Fifth
Special Forces.
In 1965, he returned to the Presidio of San Francisco, serving
first as Chief of the Senior ROTC Division, Sixth U.S. Army
(26 ROTC units covering 10 western states), and then later
as its Secretary of the General Staff. He again struck up
with McArthur and company, who were advancing in their plans
to found a new college. Lawton collaborated with them for
two years, until the Army sent him to the Claremont Colleges
to obtain a doctorate in government. He subsequently was sent
to Ft. Bragg where he was first assigned to the Special Forces
School and then as Chief of the Training Division of the 18th
Airborne Corps, ascending to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
By this time, McArthur was convinced that a new college had
to be formed and he and Berquist were preparing the founding
document for the College, A Proposal For The Fulfillment Of
Catholic Liberal Education. They finished the document (known
as the "Blue Book") in 1969, and two years later
the College opened its doors.
In 1974, after 31 years of service, having earned 2 Legion
of Merits, 3 Bronze Stars, and 3 Army Commendation medals,
among other honors and citations, Lt. Col. William Lawton
retired from the Army to help the College in its administrative
and fundraising efforts. In 1976, his friend, H. Lyman Stebbins,
founder of the newly-formed Catholics United for the Faith
(CUF), also pressed him into fundraising service, and for
the next thirteen years, Lawton served as CUF's Vice-President,
handling liaison work with the U.S. bishops on catechetical
issues and in developing a national network for the New York-based
organization.
Lawton retired in 1989, and settled in Escondido, California,
with his wife of 52 years, Peggy. They have six children and
14 grandchildren. In addition to his active participation
on the College's board, he remains involved in other Catholic
causes, including the Regnum Christi, (the lay movement of
the Legionaries of Christ) and Sierra Madre School, a private
Catholic elementary and high school near San Diego.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Winter 1999
Interview with Colonel Lawton:
Q. When you were first involved in talking about founding
a new Catholic College, did you ever fear whether it would
survive?
After the Blue Book was written, never for a second did I
doubt the College would survive. I didn't know quite how it
would, but I was always convinced that God would make it succeed.
Sure, I figured we'd have some financial difficulties along
the way, finding the right kind of property and so forth -
and, of course, we had to pray hard - but I knew that this
was an idea whose time had come. Too many people out there
had seen the way Catholic education was going and could see
it was not good. We knew this would fill a need and would
be something very good.
Q. What are some of your more vivid memories of those
early days?
Right after the founding document had been drafted, we were
hoping to establish the school across from a women's college
run by the Dominican Sisters in San Rafael, but the deal fell
apart when we couldn't come to terms about certain land and
ownership issues. I was down at Claremont at the time, and
Ron called me up one day and asked if I could arrange a meeting
with [Los Angeles] Cardinal James McIntyre. I didn't know
the Cardinal, but I called his secretary and asked for an
appointment and told him what it was about. We got a time,
and so Ron, Jack [Neumayr], and Peter [DeLuca] and I went
in for a meeting not really knowing what to expect. Turns
out, the Cardinal was extremely interested in our idea. He
pressed us up and down about all aspects of the College. It
was a very long and intense meeting. At the end, he called
in his Chancellor, Msgr. Benjamin Hawkes, and told him that
he wanted him to do whatever he could to help us get settled
here in this Archdiocese. Not too long after that, Msgr. Hawkes
introduced us to a Claretian seminary in the Malibu hills.
By the spring of 1971, we had a contract, and that fall we
opened the doors to the College. It was an amazing time.
Q. Tell me about how the new campus came about.
That was an amazing experience too. The first campus was
on leased property and we wanted to be on our own property.
We found out about the Ferndale Ranch property and fell in
love with it, but we couldn't come to terms over a price.
After several months of negotiation, things didn't look good.
So Peggy and I drove up to the property and found the owner
Paul Grafe walking in the hills. I told him where things stood
in the negotiations and was hoping he could give us a break.
He said, "Sonny, you'll have to dig deep." I thought
things were over.
The next morning, Grafe called me looking to get hold of
Ron McArthur. I told him he was in the Bay Area visiting family
and he urged me to have him call a man named Larry Barker
who happened to live up there. I asked him who Barker was
and he said with a twinkle, "You don't care who he is;
just call him." Ron called him and then met with him
and before long, Larry decided to come visit the College with
his wife Arlene and see it for himself. After his visit, he
then told us to stop by and see him the next time we were
in San Francisco.
Well, you can imagine, we wanted to see him in a hurry. So
John Schaeffer put together a luncheon at the Palace Hotel,
and he and I and Joe Wynne, and Ron and [Ret.] General [Elias]
Townsend met with him. At the end of the lunch he said, "Arlene
and I have been talking about this and we've decided that
we'd like to buy the property from Grafe and give it to you,
if that's all right?" We were floored. General Townsend
slid out of his chair, dropped to his knees and said, "Good
Lord, I just heard a miracle!" Indeed it was. It was
an extraordinarily generous thing for Mr. Barker to do and
the school will always be indebted to him for it.
Q. You had a long and distinguished career in the military.
Would you recommend a military career to anyone today?
A. Sure. You have to be careful, though, because it's changed
quite a bit. It changed from when my father was in it, it
changed while I was in it, and it's changed since I've been
away from it. You have to see which roles will be the best
fit for you. If you find a good fit, you can have a very exciting
and fulfilling career - a very moral one.
Q. CUF has grown to be an influential organization over
the years. What did you enjoy most about that work?
Part of my work was serving as liaison to the bishops. I
got to go to all the bishops' meetings, which were three times
a year back then, and I would testify about various catechetical
issues, textbooks and so forth. I really got to meet some
extraordinary people through that. Often times, some of them
had heard bad things about CUF in advance, but after we actually
got to talk with them, things would change and we'd get along
fine. Probably two who impressed me the most were Byzantine
Archbishop Elko from Cincinnati, and Cardinal Carberry of
St. Louis. I also had two private audiences with Pope John
Paul II, and, of course, those were unforgettable experiences.
Q. What is your reaction about the progress of the College
since then?
I'm really happy. I keep saying to God, "We're half-way
done now; don't let us wait another 25 years to get this finished."
I believe it'll happen fast. We have a great Board, the right
people, the right personalities. I'm very encouraged. We have
a great plan in place that was set many years ago. We just
have to stick to it. I've never heard of any other school
out there that has a plan like this. As long as we stick to
it, we'll be just fine.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Winter 1999
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