Move Unearths Mementos Of
Law School's World War II Heroes

    Two small, leather bound and embossed Baylor graduation programs from 1939 were recovered during the mammoth task of moving Baylor Law School from Morrison Constitution Hall to the Sheila and Walter Umphrey Law Center.

    Recalls Professor David Guinn, "The programs came to light during the sorting of some store room items, collected over a period of more than 50 years. These little graduation announcements fell on the floor. I thought that some of the (graduates') family members would surely love to have them."

    Among the names on the yellowed pages of the programs are 26 graduates of the Law School who received bachelor of laws degrees during the commencement exercises in Waco Hall on that Monday morning 65 years ago, June 5, 1939. Two of the law graduates listed were later killed in action during World War II - Joseph Oscar Minton of Lufkin, and Henry Counts Frey of Stephenville.

    Minton was the first cousin of the father of John H. Minton, a 1956 Baylor law graduate and a current Baylor Regent. John Minton is a senior partner at the Tyler law firm of Potter Minton.

    Well known in the Lufkin area, Joe Minton graduated from the local high school in 1934 and practiced law with his father after receiving his law degree from Baylor. In 1942, he enlisted in the Air Force and served in England with the 20th Fighter Group, 77th Fighter Squadron. John Minton said Joseph was killed when his Lockheed P-38 Lightning was shot down during a mission over Europe in February 1944. He was 26 at the time of his death.

    Frank J. Jasek, preservation specialist at Moody Library, who has been researching Baylor's wartime heroes, said he was informed by Syd Edwards, a historian researching Joe Minton's USAAF unit, that he was known among his pilot colleagues by the nickname "The Lufkin Legal Eagle." Edwards, in an email to Jasek, stated that on the day of Minton's death the squadron was responsible for providing cover for the rear section of a formation of 240 B-17 Flying Fortresses during their time over the target in Germany and, until relieved, during the return flight to their bases in England.

    "The mission was costly for the 20th Fighter Group, as eight of their 48 pilots sent out were lost," the historian pointed out. “Of the eight pilots, two, including Joe Minton, lost their lives. All the others, except one who managed to evade capture, "became prisoners of the Third Reich for the duration of the war."

    Jasek said his research into the death of Henry Counts Frey has revealed that he served as a member of the armed guard aboard the merchant ship L. Pinckney Henderson, which collided with another ship and caught fire on her maiden voyage in August 1943. "Henry was in naval intelligence, but he elected for sea duty. He was survived by his wife, Ellen, and baby," Jasek said. According to a web site containing records of U.S. naval armed guard casualties, Frey held the rank of lieutenant junior grade and was 27 years old at the time of his death.

    Baylor officials memorialized the names of Minton and Frey on the Baylor campus some years ago. Plaques bearing their names were placed on memorial lamposts erected on campus walkways. The plaques honor all those Baylor men and women who were killed during the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

    Jasek has been conducting his research into Baylor's military casualties for the past four years and he says he has "a way to go" to complete the project. "Trying to find family members is very difficult, since I am dealing mostly with second and third generation," he says. Jasek says the project will culminate in a book in which he will compile the stories of how each of these men and women died "as a way of remembering their heroic acts."

    His website about the research project can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/bookdr2003/BU_ military
casualties.html. Jasek's website includes the names of 13 Baylor casualties during the Civil War, 24 in World War I, and 130 during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

    Dean Brad Toben plans to pass along one of the 1939 graduation programs to a nephew of Joseph Minton, who lives in Austin. Assuming they can be traced, the relatives of Henry Counts Frey will receive the other program.

(Reprinted from Docket Call, The Batlor University School of Law Quarterly, Winter 2004-2005)