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Riley Dee Housewright
Carrollton &
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BIOGRAPHY
Elm Fork Echoes V. XV1 #1
March 1988
Riley Dee Housewright
by Clifton Harrison
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 Wilie,
Texas -- just one of dozens of sleepy little towns in North Texas in the
years before he roaring twenties! One major difference, instead of
being Myers or Perry or Jackson or Harrison, it was Housewright and here
in lies our story.
There was big new is this small town when it was
announced one bright morning that twins had been added to the
Housewright Clan and had been named appropriately Wiley and Riley. While
their childhood, elementary and high school years were average, if you
can classify twins' antics as average, their life-interests seemed to
point in different directions from the very beginning. So, when they
made the decision to become a part of "Mean Green" by enrolling in North
Texas State College at Denton, Wiley made the decision to concentrate on
music, while Riley majored in science, with a minor in coaching
basketball and track.
The twins were excellent students and tremendously
popular on campus. To quote Riley: "My enthusiasm for track was strong
and I lettered in it three years and two years in cross country running
during my days in Denton. Our coach always insisted that we get in shape
for cross country before school started. You can imagine the reaction of
the rural people of small-town Wylie, seeing this crazy college kid
running around the country in his underwear."
His determination to be a "star" worked to the
advantage of the students of 1933-34 term, the trustees elected Riley
Housewright as his replacement.
Few of the students realized that our new science
teacher was almost our own age, nonetheless, we gave him "the new
teacher test." As one of the girls put it: "Mr. Housewright was so
good looking all the girls fell in love with him. All the boys
gave him the old
try-to-see-how-far-we-can-go-before-he-sends-us-to-detention routine. He
passed the test with glowing colors and was soon one of our favorite
teachers."
Elmer Jordan was football coach his first year and
Riley was his assistant. Charlie Cox was quarterback of the "Yellow
Jackets" with J. E. Johnston, Art Daniel Bill Kirkland of Coppell, the
Noel boys and the Gammons, among other team members. It must not have
been a successful season as nobody seems to remember much about it. Our
homecoming game was always with archrival Garland and they always beat
us; 1935 wasno exception. Apparently Coach Jordan saw something he liked
on the Garland team. The next year he left Carrollton and became coach
there.
When track season came along in 1935, Coach Jordan
helped Mr. Housewright. They marked off a dirt track with lime. To quote
Riley: "The geometry required to be sure it measured exactly one quarter
mile, 440 yards, was much easier than the leveling and pot-hole filling
required to make the track safe for usage. We had two or three dual
meets that year. We must not have had great results, since I do not
remember any specifics about any of them"
You must remember that in 1935-1936 Carrollton High
School was consolidated with students from Hebron, Trinity Mills,
Addison, Coppell, Letot, and Farmers Branch. Even with the addition of
other students, Carrollton was still so small that all sports had the
same people competing in them and this still did not give the coach much
"depth" in his choice of people on his teams.
With Coach Jordan's departure, the School Board was
kind enough to hire another young man for our football coach: Oliver W.
(Bull) Majors. At least Riley had a coach that was near his own age and
they could work together more closely. Riley and Bull lived at Mrs. Roy
Russell's house that year and to show the towns people that they had the
proper "raisin" they, as was expected of teachers in those days,
attended the Baptist chruch one Sunday and the Methodist Church the
next. That is, on the Sundays they were in Carrollton, and it was
expected that they remain in Carrollton to make a certain number of
appearances for appearance sake.
Some of the football stars graduated in June 1936,
but a new crop came in from the elementary schools of the district. They
must not have improved the team much, as we still lost about the same
number of games. Apparently Bull Majors must have been totally
disheartened by the end of school, since he only coached the one year.
But Riley says, "The second year we had a much improved track team at
Carrollton. After some dual meets, we entered the Dallas County
Interscholastic League meet. My memory may be larger than reality,
but I believe we won all but two of the running events and that county
meet in May 1936. We also placed in some field events.
"J. E. Johnston won the mile.
Art Daniel ran the 100-yard dash and won.
Charlie Cox was winner of the 50-yard dash.
Charlie Cox was also our star javelin handler and won.
W. T. (Bill) Gammon was our best with the discus and the shot
put. I seem to remember that if he didn't
win, he placed in the top three of both of these competitions.
"J. E. Johnston was our best miler. His record was
impressive enough that he entered in the annual Fat Stock Show Track
Meet that year in Ft. Worth, but unfortunately he broke an arch in his
foot the first day of the qualifying trials. He managed to run, but it
wasn't his usual race due to this handicap and he was not a winner."
In June of that year most of the stars graduated,
leaving a great deal of rebuilding for the next school year, when the
high school would be moved from the old red brick building into the new
DeWitt Perry High School.
It would also be a change for our coach and friend
Riley Dee Housewright. He left Carrollton for Southwest Texas State
Teachers College at San Marcos; from there his career took off. He
retired from teaching at an early age and spent the remainder of his
career as one of the leading micro-biologits in our country, but he has
never forgotten that group of students who taught him how to teach in
his first clasroom and still remains "special" to the young people he
guided through biology and chemistry over 50 years ago.
He resently lives in Frederick, Maryland, but still
has ties in Wylie and often when he comes there, he makes time for his
former students. Could any of us ask for more? |
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| WIKIPEDIA |
OBITUARY
 RILEY
D. HOUSEWRIGHT - DIRECTED BIOLOGICAL WARFARE RESEARCH
Riley D. Housewright, a microbiologist who helped direct U.S. research
in biological warfare from World War II until 1970, died Saturday at an
assisted-living center in Frederick, Md. He was 89.
One of Mr. Housewright's projects in the 1960s was developing agents
that could kill or incapacitate large numbers of Cubans in preparing for
an invasion of Cuba. In an interview for the book "Germs: Biological
Weapons and America's Secret War" (Simon & Schuster, 2001), written by
Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg and William J. Broad, reporters for The
New York Times, he said such an action would be "a good thing" because
it would save American lives.
"It was not the same as putting an atomic bomb down their throat, which
would have been just as easy or easier to deliver," he said. "It was a
humane act."
Mr. Housewright was scientific director of the Army Biological
Laboratories at Fort Detrick, Md., from 1956 to 1970, when President
Richard M. Nixon banned offensive biological weapons. The laboratory was
converted to defensive research.
Under Mr. Housewright's leadership, the laboratory did pioneering
studies on germs and viruses, some involving human guinea pigs. He
strongly defended the work at scientific meetings and congressional
hearings as necessary to defend U.S. combatants. Before going into war
zones, military personnel still receive vaccines his team created.
Riley Dee Housewright was born Oct. 17, 1913, in Wylie, Tex.
He earned a bachelor's degree from North Texas State College and a
master's from the University of Texas, then taught in public schools for
several years. After earning his doctorate from the University of
Chicago, he was commissioned a Navy lieutenant in 1944 and assigned to
Fort Detrick. He had been in the Naval Reserve.
Scientists at Fort Detrick worked on agriculture blights that could
destroy German potatoes and Japanese rice, as well as anthrax for use
against enemy troops.
In 1946, Mr. Housewright was named to the civilian post of chief of the
microbial physiology and chemotherapy branch at Fort Detrick. He was
chief of the medical bacteriology division from 1950 until he became
scientific director six years later.
The scientists at Fort Detrick developed anthrax spores, botulinum
toxin, and viruses like encephalitis and yellow fever. Ultimately, about
50 viruses and other agents were identified at Fort Detrick as good
candidates for germ warfare.
After the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, the scientists worked on
developing a mix of incapacitating biological agents. The idea was that
once the Cuban population was incapacitated, Americans would invade
after the sickening mist had dispelled. |
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) - January 17, 2003
Author/Byline: DOUGLAS MARTIN, THE NEW YORK TIMES |
Germ Warfare
Researcher Riley D. Housewright Dies
By Claudia Levy
January 15, 2003
Riley D. Housewright, 89, scientific director of the Army laboratories at Fort
Detrick during its early years as a biological weapons research center, died
Jan. 11 at the Edenton assisted-living facility in Frederick. He had Alzheimer's
disease and a heart ailment.
As a young microbiologist during World War II, Dr. Housewright was assigned to
the Frederick facility by the Navy. At that time, a secret research program was
being mobilized to counter potential germ attacks by Japan and Germany. The Fort
Detrick scientists worked to develop anthrax spores that could be used in
weapons and made deadly botulinum toxin that was highly concentrated.
While biological weapons were not employed by the United States during the war,
the military's interest in relatively low-cost germ warfare continued during the
Cold War era.
Dr. Housewright was named chief of the microbial physiology and chemotherapy
branch at Detrick in 1946 and became scientific director 10 years later. During
that period, medical advances began to diminish the potential for bacterial
weapons, and research directions shifted at the Army facility.
In their 2001 book, "Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War," Judith
Miller, Stephen Engelberg and William Broad describe Detrick's growing interest
in lethal viruses, which are much harder to attack. Viruses developed as weapons
at Detrick included encephalitis and yellow fever.
In interviews for the book and a subsequent "Frontline" television documentary,
Dr. Housewright described the biological warfare operation at Fort Detrick and
the high priority given it by the Kennedy administration as the Cuban missile
crisis loomed.
"The planning was directed by Pentagon officials who encouraged the germ
scientists to refine how, exactly, such an attack would work," Miller and the
others write. " 'I'd get maps half the size of my desk' that indicated the
position of Russian troops and weapons in Cuba," Dr. Housewright is quoted as
saying.
Under his direction, scientists "prepared agents that could incapacitate or kill
large numbers of Cubans," the authors say. The lethal alternative of spraying
enemy troops with botulinum toxin was also considered, they note. But again, the
weapons were not utilized.
By the end of the 1960s, the mission of Fort Detrick had become more widely
known, and it was the target of Vietnam War protesters.
In 1969, President Richard M. Nixon announced that he was ending research in
biological weaponry but continuing research on defending against such attacks.
By then, about 50 viruses and rickettsiae had been identified at Detrick as good
candidates for germ warfare, the "Germ" authors write.
Dr. Housewright remained as scientific director at the lab until 1970 and then
became vice president of Microbiological Associates in Bethesda. He later was
principal staff officer at the National Academy of Sciences, where he published
four volumes on safe drinking water.
He was executive director of the American Society for Microbiology in the early
1980s before retiring. He had been founding president of the society in the
mid-1960s.
Dr. Housewright was a native of Wylie, Tex., and a graduate of North Texas State
University. He received a master's degree in microbiology from the University of
Texas and a doctorate in bacteriology from the University of Chicago.
He retired as a captain in the Naval Reserve in 1966.
His honors included civilian service awards from the Army, the first
distinguished alumni award of North Texas State and an award from the
International Congress of Chemotherapy, which he headed in the mid-1960s.
He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a
consultant to companies and institutions and an author of books and articles for
research journals. He was a member of the Cosmos Club and the board of the
American Type Culture Collection in Bethesda.
Dr. Housewright was also a trustee of Hood College and a director of Frederick
Memorial Hospital and the Cancer Research Center at Fort Detrick. He was
president of the Frederick Rotary Club.
His first wife, Marjory Bryant Housewright, died in 1962.
Survivors include his wife of 34 years, Artemis Jegart Housewright of Frederick;
a son from his first marriage, Kim Bryant Housewright of Fullerton, Calif.; two
stepdaughters; his twin brother; and two grandchildren. |
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