Oliver Owen Kessing

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 10 dated events in the chronology →

1. May 23, 1942 Governor Broughton welcomes guests at the commissioning of the Navy Pre-Flight School The dinner program for the commissioning of the Naval Aviation Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill on May 23, 1942 has Governor J. Melville Broughton offering the welcome, and Josephus Daniels giving greetings to the Navy Department representatives and to Commander O. O. Kessing. The school trained 18,700 pre-flight cadets before it was decommissioned on October 15, 1945. People: J. Melville Broughton, Josephus Daniels, Oliver Owen Kessing Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Training Programs, A Nursery of Patriotism: the University at War, 1861-1945
2. September 16, 1942 Chapel Hill aldermen endorse a petition to make the town a defense rental area After a public hearing on September 14, at which Pre-Flight School commander O. O. Kessing and his executive officer complained that Navy officers were paying rents far above normal, a special meeting of the aldermen endorsed the Consumers Association's petition to have Chapel Hill and vicinity declared a defense rental area. The petition was to go through the commandant of the Sixth Naval District and the Navy Department to the Office of Price Administration. By the Consumers Association's later account the OPA placed the town in the North Carolina Defense Rental Area, but no federal rent control had followed by March 1943. People: Oliver Owen Kessing Place: Town Hall, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 18, 1942, p. 1
3. October 15, 1942 The Pre-Flight School's Black Navy band holds a formal party at its community center quarters The Pre-Flight School gave its 44-man band, the first all-Black Navy band of the war, a formal banquet and dance at its quarters, the stone building begun as a community center for Chapel Hill's Black residents, with guests brought by Navy bus from the Black colleges in Durham and Greensboro. Commander and Mrs. Kessing sat at the tables with the bandsmen, and Kessing gave the band the next day off. People: Oliver Owen Kessing Place: Community center for Black residents (later Hargraves Center), Chapel HillCloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), October 24, 1942, p. 4
4. November 26, 1942 A regimental review in Kenan Stadium honors Commander Kessing as he leaves for the Pacific With Admiral Halsey asking for him in the southwest Pacific, Commander O. O. Kessing was ordered to sea duty, and the Pre-Flight School held a regimental review in his honor in Kenan Stadium. Lieutenant Commander John P. Graff succeeded him in command. People: R. B. House, John P. Graff Place: Kenan Stadium, Chapel HillSearch the index · Chapel Hill Weekly: "Kessing to Leave Here because He Is Wanted on Battle Front" (November 27, 1942), p. 1
5. November 1942 Chapel Hill builds up a community blood bank with Pre-Flight donors Townspeople and Pre-Flight School personnel began giving blood for a community blood bank in Chapel Hill, kept for local emergencies under Dr. J. B. Bullitt, with technicians from Watts Hospital in Durham and Lt. Comdr. Clark E. Brown of the Pre-Flight medical staff drawing blood weekly at the university infirmary. Commander Kessing and Lt. Comdr. Graff led the Navy donors on November 12. At least 500 donors were needed to start the bank. People: James Bell Bullitt, Oliver Owen Kessing, John P. Graff Place: University infirmary, UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: Clark E. Brown · Also mentions: Watts HospitalSearch the index · Cloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), November 14, 1942, p. 2 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, November 6, 1942, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 11, 1942, p. 1
6. November 1942 James P. Raugh becomes executive officer of the Pre-Flight School When Commander O. O. Kessing left for sea duty and Lt. Comdr. John P. Graff was named commanding officer, Lieut. James P. Raugh, the school's regimental commander, was moved up to executive officer, and Lieut. Lloyd R. Sauer took over the regiment. People: James P. Raugh, Oliver Owen Kessing, John P. Graff Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Lloyd R. SauerSearch the index · DigitalNC: Cloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), November 28, 1942, p. 1
7. November 1942 John P. Graff takes command of the Navy Pre-Flight School When Commander O. O. Kessing was ordered to sea in November 1942, his executive officer John P. Graff was named to succeed him in command; a regimental review in Kenan Stadium honored Kessing on November 26, and the Weekly reported Graff's promotion to commander in the first week of December. Graff, recalled from retirement, had been the first line officer to arrive in the spring of 1942. People: Oliver Owen Kessing, John P. Graff Place: Navy Pre-Flight School, UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Kenan StadiumFrancis Laverne Johnson, With the Cloudbusters at the United States Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill (1943), scan p. 8 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, November 27, 1942, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 11, 1942, p. 1
8. by November 13, 1942 University improves the acoustics of Memorial Hall at the Navy's urging The University added loudspeakers, improved the amplifying system, put acoustical board on the walls and hung monk's-cloth curtains across the back of the balcony and the sides of the stage in Memorial Hall, on the advice of Robert Thompson, sound engineer of the Columbia Broadcasting System. The Weekly reported, as the story went, that Commander O. O. Kessing of the Pre-Flight School had pressed for the work after speakers could not be heard, and that a subsidy was mentioned. People: Oliver Owen Kessing Place: Memorial Hall, UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: Robert ThompsonThe Chapel Hill Weekly, November 13, 1942, p. 1
9. mid-August 1943 Kessing Pool opens behind Woollen Gymnasium for Pre-Flight swimming training An outdoor pool behind Woollen Gymnasium opened in mid-August 1943 for the Navy Pre-Flight School's aquatic training and was named for Oliver Owen Kessing, the school's first commanding officer. Thousands of servicemen trained in it, among them Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush. Place: Kessing Pool, Chapel Hill · Also named: Gerald Ford · Also mentions: Woollen GymnasiumSearch the index · Carolina Story: Bowman Gray and Kessing Pools and Koury Natatorium · Also: Cloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), August 21, 1943, p. 3; Chapel Hill Weekly, August 20, 1943, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, August 13, 1943, p. 1
10. June 22, 1945 The outdoor pool named for Commodore O. O. Kessing is formally dedicated The outdoor pool completed in 1943 and named by the university trustees for Commodore O. O. Kessing, the school's first commanding officer, was dedicated during the Pre-Flight sports finals. Chancellor Robert B. House presided, Comdr. James P. Raugh and President Frank P. Graham spoke, and a cypress plaque was unveiled in the pool's rock wall; the pool served the school, the university and the town. People: Oliver Owen Kessing, R. B. House, Frank Porter Graham, James P. Raugh Place: Kessing Pool, UNC campus, Chapel HillCloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), June 29, 1945, p. 3