Rev. Victor Ramsey '50 Recalls How End of WWII "Changed the Course of My Life"

October 31, 2010

87125 October 31, 2010, Greencastle, Ind. — "There are some who think credit for America's triumph in World War II should go to Victor Ramsey," begins an article on the 1950 DePauw University graduate in Illinois' Edwardsville Intelligencer. "After all, the 19-year-old stand-in chaplain prayed for world peace and that's exactly what the world got."

The story details how Ramsey was serving aboard the U.S.S. Kleinsmith, which was bound for the Pacific in August 1945 when an accident with a depth charge damaged the ship. It needed to be repaired quickly to help in the war effort.

"Lt. Cmdr. Alden LaTrobe knew it would take a miracle to get the ship repaired on time so he asked for one," Bill Tucker writes. "He called together his chaplains to lead a prayer service. When he realized there wasn't a Protestant minister on hand, he turned to Ramsey, who he knew had some training."

"The captain wanted to know if I had any experience," Reverend Ramsey recalls. "I said, 'No sir, except speaking to youth groups before I got into the Navy.' I still remember his answer. He said, 'The average age on this ship is 19. I guess that qualifies. Can you do it?' I said, 'When do you want it sir?' He said, '10-hundred.' I looked at my watch, it was 10 minutes after 9. I had 50 minutes."

As it happened, the Japanese surrended just a few days after that service.

"The fellas gave me some razzing, telling me that I prayed for our safety and peace -- which I did -- and it worked so well," Ramsey says. "I told them, 'The truth is, they heard all you raunchy guys on this ship are coming their way and they didn't want to contend with us."

"Ramsey was eventually named Acting Protestant Chaplain for Devine Services at Sea," the newspaper reports. "Victor Ramsey was discharged from the Navy in 1945 and graduated from DePauw University 51520 in Greencastle, Ind., in 1950 with a bachelor's degree in economics. He took a job right out of college as an executive trainee with William H. Block Co. in downtown Indianapolis, the second largest department store in Indiana. But, just like it had on the Kleinsmith, the ministry called again. After attending Butler University in Indianapolis and the Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ramsey was ordained and received into full ministerial membership in the Northwest Indiana Conference of the Methodist Church in 1956. He served as a minister in Indiana and Illinois. He retired from full-time work in 1988, the first year he and 15 of his old shipmates gathered for a reunion in New Orleans to remember the Kleinsmith."

"It changed the course of my life," Ramsey says of his war experience. "I had been thinking about the ministry, but wasn't really committed to it."