Hall of Honor
The athletic achievements of “Jack” Samuel are indelibly recorded at Beloit College and West Point. One of the finest scholar-athletes ever to wear the Gold, he was a six-letter man and earned the rare honor of being named captain of both the football and basketball teams and president elect of the class as a senior. An All-Conference hardcourt selection, this versatile competitor also excelled in track and established a longstanding javelin record. He left Beloit after his junior year to accept an appointment to West Point, starring there as a playmaker and on defense for the basketball team, which he captained as a senior, and as a signal-calling end in football. Rated a “distinguished cadet,” the military equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa, he like wise scored in his career, being commissioned a second lieutenant in June, 1939, entering the regular Army’s aviation service, and rising to the rank of colonel by the end of World War II. His heroic leadership of a bombardment group over Western Europe brought him the highest decorations of the United States and France, including the Distinuished Service Cross and Croix de Guerre. In 1964, he was promoted to major general.
