Obituary of Gervais W. Trichel Sr., LaSalle Parish, Louisiana


Copied and Submitted by :Kathy LeMay Kelly, P.O. Box 219, Trout, La. 71371

From The Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal; Jena, LaSalle Parish, La.
Clippings at the LaSalle Parish Library, Located in Jena, LaSalle Parish, La.
Wednesday, June 13, 1990


Many Thanks to The Times - Signal and to the LaSalle Parish Library for
allowing the following to be added to the Archives.
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At age 91...
Furst LaSalle West Point graduate dies

Gervais W. Trichel, 91, a native of Harrisonburg and who was reared in the
Midway Community of LaSalle Parish, died Saturday, June 2, 1990, in Georgian
Bloomfield Nursing Home at Birmingham, Mich.

Trichel was the first from LaSalle Parish to graduate from the famous U.S.
Military Academy at West Point. He entered West Point in 1916 and was sent to
France in the aftermath of World War I in 1919 as a second lieutenant to help
supervise a prisoner of war camp.

Trichel, a brother to the late P.E. (Ted) Trichel of Midway, graduated from
Jena High School before going to West Point. After a 30 year career as an Army
officer, Trichel worked as a Chrysler Corporation executive before retiring in
1963.

He served in a variety of assignments between the wars, primarily with the
Coast Artillery Corps and the Air Corps. He earned two advanced degrees while
in the Army; a master's in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in 1935, and a doctorate from the University of
California in 1938.

In June 1940, he was in Paris as an assistant military attache at the American
embassy when the city fell to German troops. During most of World War II, then
Lt.-Col. Trichel was chief of the rocket development division of the Army's
ordinance department in Washington.

At Chrysler, Trichel at first was directly connected with the auto-maker's
defense contracts for tanks, military vehicles, jet engines and other military
products.

In 1956, he was named president of the company's Amplex division and in 1959
became military advisor to Chrysler's group vice-president of defense and
special products.

Memorial services were held June 5th at 11 a.m. in Christ Church, Cranbrook,
Bloomfield Hills. Burial was private.

Survivors include his wife, Betty; two sons, Paul Trichel and Gervais W.
Trichel Jr.; 10 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, three nephews and a
niece.