Veterans Among Us: Hardy Eshbaugh

“My ROTC grades at Cornell saved my butt.”

This is how my conversation with Dr. Hardy Eshbaugh began when I sat down in his Oxford home to talk about his military service. His story about a significant academic career, coupled with fascinating service to his country, was yet another opportunity for me to share a veteran’s story with the greater Oxford community.

“I was introduced to military service through my father’s service in WWII,” Eshbaugh said. “I was four or five years old when my father pulled me aside and said, ‘I have to leave now, and you have to be the man of the house.’”

Hardy went on to share “I was a poor student both academically and financially when I graduated from high school in New Jersey and headed off to Cornell University in upstate New York.”  

According to Eshbaugh, ROTC was mandatory for all men at Cornell, and he took great joy in the classes. 

“I wasn’t much better as a student by the time I was to graduate from Cornell in the late 1950’s,” he added. “But one of my academic mentors convinced me to take the Graduate Record Exams (GRE). I knew I was headed for a ROTC commission in the US Artillery. So, I took the exams and scored, overall, in the top percentile.”

Eshbaugh got his master’s degree in botany from Indiana University in 1961, and soon after his PhD in 1964.

“My original academic intent in botany was to study blueberries,” he said. “But my long time advisor and friend at Indiana University, Dr. Charles Heiser said, one day, ‘Hardy there is no research money for looking into blue berries.’” 

Heiser pulled out a box of over a hundred pepper seeds and suggested Eshbaugh to look into them.

“So, my academic journey began to learn as much about peppers as I could,” Eshbaugh added. “This journey took me and my family all over South America and other places to learn the story of peppers.”

Soon, the United States government found that Eshbaugh’s knowledge of seeds would be best suited in the U.S. Army Chemical Corp in Dugway, Utah. 

“It was off to Utah with my wife and young children,” he said. “There were three or four thousand PhD’s sent there to do research (and) I was put in the biological group. This work was highly classified at the time, and as far as I know, it still is.”

Eshbaugh conducted various research, including a trip to Alaska to study mosquitoes, which led to some difficulties.

“The equipment that we took with us to do the research would not function in the Alaskan environment,” he said. “We quickly figured which one of us the mosquitoes were most attracted to (and)that guy became our bait person for the entire study.”

After living for a year and a half in Dugway, and being promoted to a captain, he found a draw to teaching. 

Soon, Eshbaugh found himself as a faculty member at Southern Illinois University in 1965. I was handed an official document from the Army saying that I had been promoted to Captain in the US Army.

“I was at a professional conference when a colleague suggested that I think about some teaching openings at Miami of Ohio,” he said. “I looked into this opportunity, and I was hired by Miami in 1967 as an Assistant Professor of Botany. I was at Miami for a long career. When I retired in 1998, I was honored to be named Professor Emeritus of Botany.”

Eshbaugh leafed through a note book and showed me something that he, obviously, was very proud of. It was the paperwork for the Army Commendation Medal that read, in part, “For Meritorious Service as Special Assistant to the Chief of Ecology and Epidemiology, Biological Division, Dugway, Utah.

When asked to summarize what his military experience had done for him he said that “It helped me recognize the qualities of a good leader. I have used this knowledge for the rest of my life. I’m equally proud of both my academic achievements as well as serving my country.” 

When Ezra Cornell co-founded Cornell in 1865, he authored Cornell’s motto, “Any Person, Any Study.” I’m sure that Mr. Cornell would be proud of Hardy Eshbaugh for both his academic laurels and service to his country.

Lee Fisher is a Miami graduate, resident of Oxford, Ohio and a Vietnam War Veteran.