Around the World with Dobby

The Dobby Letters started as a way for Professor J.S. “Dobby” Doubenmier to keep in touch with his students. With the outbreak of World War II, these letters took on a new significance. They would capture, in the authors’ own words, how friends, families and fiancées dealt with the stresses of a world at war.

Dobby collected the “interesting and vital points” of each letter and passed them along to his students, much as a blogger would do today. In this sprit, we have created a blog that reprints Dobby’s letters 66 years after they were written.

As Dobby put it, “Join the ‘gang’ and see the world by letter from our former teammates scattered around the globe.” Read the blog at www.uncalumni.org/dobbyletters.

What a thrill it was to read the article on “Dobby” Doubenmier, “Dobby’s Letters,” in the Winter 2009 edition of Northern Vision. I was one of the youngest boys on campus when I entered in 1946. Nearly all of the others were not “boys,” but men, who had put aside their college education while attending to more important matters overseas and stateside. Consequently, although I knew of Dobby’s letters, I was not one who participated in them; I was fortunate—or unfortunate—enough to have been too young. I spent WWII in junior and senior high school.

But the men I met in college knew him, and their admiration— even love—was evident. He was an honorary member of every fraternity on campus. As a pledge to Delta Psi, I had to get my paddle signed by him, as did all pledges. He went along with all that “foolishness” with good grace. Perhaps it was because such innocent fun was a contrast to the grim reality many men were exposed in years past.

Not being as physically mature as most of my classmates, I tried with limited success to enter the athletic whirl of the college. A season of track showed me I was not fast enough, and part of a season on the boxing team showed me I was not going to be a fighter. When I finally found my milieu in the swimming pool, Dobby was not only encouraging, but his simple statement that he himself was never strong enough to do some sports made me feel somehow comfortable about my athletic shortcomings.

Thanks for the story. If there is ever a book made from Dobby’s letters, I will be sure to get a copy.

Joseph Wendell Reiff
Class of 1950