Leelanau County MI Archives Photo Tombstone.....Gell, Joanna Westie ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Harold & Linda Saffron lindaj50@charter.net October 14, 2006, 12:04 pm Cemetery: Maple Grove - Empire Name: Joanna Westie Gell Date Of Photograph: October 6, 2006 Photo can be seen at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/leelanau/photos/tombstones/maplegroveempire/gell70714gph.jpg Image file size: 89.7 Kb Joanna Westie Gell b. 1941 d. 1991 ----------------------------------------- FATHER-- Description: Death Notices - Frank Robert Westie Naples, FL Frank Robert Westie (1921 to 2004) a resident of Naples, FL, and Glen Arbor, MI, (formerly of Bloomington, IN), author of Ash Wednesday '45, the highly acclaimed novel of love and war in World War II, died Friday, March 5, 2004 in Naples, FL. In his autobiographical essays, Dr. Westie confessed that his psyche was dominated by the realization that he had, as a pilot of a B-17 Flying Fortress in World War II, participated in the destruction of Dresden, Germany, a non-military target, in which the human loss and destruction were comparable to Hiroshima. He regarded Ash Wednesday '45 as a confession of sorts, an attempt at expiation of the author's life-long feelings of guilt and grief over having participated in the greatest atrocity committed by American armed forces in history. In the nowfamous Dresden raids beginning on Ash Wednesday, 1945, hundreds of American heavy bombers dropped hundreds of tons of incendiary and high-explosive bombs on Dresden on two consecutive days, after it already was totally aflame following incendiary bombings by hundreds of RAF night bombers the two previous nights. The American flyers never saw the firestorm that they and the RAF had created (they bombed by radar through a solid undercast). The flyers had been told at briefings that they were bombing a railroad yard. The question: why the incessant incendiary bombing of a militarily insignificant target long after it was ablaze? There are many theories of why the total destruction of Dresden was planned. The people who designed and executed the event are now dead, and they kept their silence while alive. Most historians see the attack as an act of revenge ordered by the chief of Allied air operations, British Air Marshall Sir Arthur Bomber Harris, who, in the Casablanca meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, was given command over all strategic air forces on the Western Front at the time when General Dwight Eisenhower was given command over all Allied forces on the Western front. Dr. Westie often stated in public speeches that he is certain he would have faced a firing squad before he would have participated in the Dresden raid, had he known then what the Allies' Air Forces Command had planned for Dresden. It was his intention that revenues from a German edition of Ash Wednesday '45, as well as his share of any film rights, be contributed to the reconstruction of the Frauenkirsche church in Dresden (underway for decades and scheduled for completion in 2004). After the war Westie devoted his life to the cause of peace, which he called humanity among humans. While his interests tended strongly toward literature, he chose to study sociology and psychology, fields in which he felt he could, through teaching and research, more directly serve the cause of humane human relations. He spent his career exploring the question: How do groups of people come to hate other groups, often to the point of destruction of one group by another? He was regarded as a pioneer in the scientific study of racial and ethnic relations. Ever mindful of the murder of millions of Jews by Hitler and his followers, Westie spent much of his research and teaching career trying to understand the psychological attributes of authoritarian personalities: people who can't live with their ambivalence, who have deep-lying hostility toward groups different from their own, great fear of those they regard as strange and allconsuming convictions that their own nation, community, church, language, cultural styles are the standards whereby all others should be judged. He felt that, too often, Christianity is distorted by attempts to justify authoritarian social systems. This was a source of great sadness to him because he was, as he called himself, a Sermon on the Mount Christian the most subversive kind. While Ash Wednesday '45 has been called the most vivid account ever written on the horrors of the air war in World War II (a reviewer in the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet called it the best war book since All Quiet on the Western Front), its purpose in the author's mind was to speak to the moral issues of warfare, first by having the reader experience the air war in Europe in all its horror, then by having the leading character face a moral choice on the morning of the Dresden raid a moral choice he himself would have faced had he known of the Allied High Command's plans for the total destruction of the civilian population of Dresden. Ash Wednesday '45 was published by Wahr Publishing, Ann Arbor, MI, in 1995 and 1996, making best-seller lists in Northern Michigan and Naples, FL. It will be re-published this year by the Petoskey Press, along with a justcompleted sequel. Dr. Westie was graduated from Central Michigan University with degrees in music and physics, and received a Ph.D. in sociology from Ohio State University. He was a Professor of Sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, for 33 years (1949 to 1982). He also taught at Ohio State University, and more recently was an adjunct professor at Arizona State University. Dr. Westie sang in Methodist church choirs in Leland, MI, and Naples, FL. Also a musician and composer, Westie had just completed a cantata, Pacem In Terra (Peace on Earth), which will debut in Michigan on Memorial Day weekend. Dr. Westie was an officer of national professional associations and a member of grantgiving foundation boards in New York and Washington, including the Fulbright Committee in Washington. He regarded Ash Wednesday '45 as the most important of his many publications, calling it the story of a man who finally chose to follow his conscience even unto death. Westie is survived by his beloved wife of 60 years, Margaret Westie; daughters Katharine Westie (Fred Tasker) of Miami, FL, Anne Wiesen (Daniel) of Glen Arbor, MI, son Kurt Westie (Jodi) of Nashville IN and predeceased by his daughter Joanna Westie Gell (Richard). He also is survived by grandchildren Matthew, Alex, Sarah and Claire Wiesen, Anne-Marie Tasker; Alison Jacobs (Roland); Courtenay Hoffman (Mark) and Julianna Kiefer, and pre-deceased by grandson Benjamin Wiesen. He also leaves behind great-grandchildren Kurt and Audrey Hoffman and Shelby and Jackson Jacobs. He also is survived by his sister, Helen Westie Wetterholt of Empire, MI, and was pre-deceased by his brother, Dr. Charles W. Westie (Ardith). A celebration of his life will be held at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 16th at the Leland United Methodist Church, 106 North Fourth Street, Leland, MI 231-256- 9161. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Habitat for Humanity of Collier County, FL 239-775-0036; or Habitat for Humanity, Grand Traverse Region 231941-4663.Frank Robert Westie Naples, FL Frank Robert Westie (1921 to 2004) a resident of Naples, FL, and Glen Arbor, MI, (formerly of Bloomington, IN), author of Ash Wednesday '45, the highly acclaimed novel of love and war in World War II, died Friday, March 5, 2004 in Naples, FL. In his autobiographical essays, Dr. Westie confessed that his psyche was dominated by the realization that he had, as a pilot of a B-17 Flying Fortress in World War II, participated in the destruction of Dresden, Germany, a non-military target, in which the human loss and destruction were comparable to Hiroshima. He regarded Ash Wednesday '45 as a confession of sorts, an attempt at expiation of the author's life-long feelings of guilt and grief over having participated in the greatest atrocity committed by American armed forces in history. In the nowfamous Dresden raids beginning on Ash Wednesday, 1945, hundreds of American heavy bombers dropped hundreds of tons of incendiary and high-explosive bombs on Dresden on two consecutive days, after it already was totally aflame following incendiary bombings by hundreds of RAF night bombers the two previous nights. The American flyers never saw the firestorm that they and the RAF had created (they bombed by radar through a solid undercast). The flyers had been told at briefings that they were bombing a railroad yard. The question: why the incessant incendiary bombing of a militarily insignificant target long after it was ablaze? There are many theories of why the total destruction of Dresden was planned. The people who designed and executed the event are now dead, and they kept their silence while alive. Most historians see the attack as an act of revenge ordered by the chief of Allied air operations, British Air Marshall Sir Arthur Bomber Harris, who, in the Casablanca meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, was given command over all strategic air forces on the Western Front at the time when General Dwight Eisenhower was given command over all Allied forces on the Western front. Dr. Westie often stated in public speeches that he is certain he would have faced a firing squad before he would have participated in the Dresden raid, had he known then what the Allies' Air Forces Command had planned for Dresden. It was his intention that revenues from a German edition of Ash Wednesday '45, as well as his share of any film rights, be contributed to the reconstruction of the Frauenkirsche church in Dresden (underway for decades and scheduled for completion in 2004). After the war Westie devoted his life to the cause of peace, which he called humanity among humans. While his interests tended strongly toward literature, he chose to study sociology and psychology, fields in which he felt he could, through teaching and research, more directly serve the cause of humane human relations. He spent his career exploring the question: How do groups of people come to hate other groups, often to the point of destruction of one group by another? He was regarded as a pioneer in the scientific study of racial and ethnic relations. Ever mindful of the murder of millions of Jews by Hitler and his followers, Westie spent much of his research and teaching career trying to understand the psychological attributes of authoritarian personalities: people who can't live with their ambivalence, who have deep-lying hostility toward groups different from their own, great fear of those they regard as strange and allconsuming convictions that their own nation, community, church, language, cultural styles are the standards whereby all others should be judged. He felt that, too often, Christianity is distorted by attempts to justify authoritarian social systems. This was a Location: FL Date: 3/9/2004 Source: Naples Daily News =============================================== NAPLES, Fla. - Frank Robert Westie (1921-2004), a resident of Naples, Fla., and Glen Arbor, formerly of Bloomington, Ind., author of "Ash Wednesday '45," the highly acclaimed novel of love and war in World War II, died Friday, March 5, 2004, in Naples, Fla. The book, although written as a novel, is a detailed psychological history of the bomber offensive against Germany in WWII. While not an autobiography, "Ash Wednesday '45" declares the value system of its author. It is the story of a WWII bomber pilot haunted by the destruction of human beings in the cities he is called upon to bomb. Dr. Westie described the book as "the story of a collision between a man's conscience that would not yield and a military system that - like all social systems - once set in motion, becomes an inexorable tide that cannot be stayed or redirected by individuals, however great their social power or noble their intentions." In his autobiographical essays, Dr. Westie confessed that his psyche was dominated by the realization that he had, as a pilot of a B-17 "Flying Fortress" in WWII, participated in the destruction of Dresden, Germany, a non- military target, in which the human loss and destruction were comparable to Hiroshima. He regarded "Ash Wednesday '45" as "a confession of sorts, an attempt at expiation of the author's lifelong feelings of guilt and grief over having participated in the greatest atrocity committed by American armed forces in history." In the now-famous Dresden raids beginning on Ash Wednesday, 1945, hundreds of American heavy bombers dropped hundreds of tons of incendiary and high-explosive bombs on Dresden on two consecutive days, after it already was totally aflame following incendiary bombings by hundreds of RAF night bombers the two previous nights. The American flyers never saw the firestorm that they and the RAF had created (they bombed by radar through a solid undercast). The flyers had been told at briefings that they were bombing a railroad yard. The question: why the incessant incendiary bombing of a militarily insignificant target long after it was ablaze? There are many theories of why the total destruction of Dresden was planned. The people who designed and executed the event are now dead, and they kept their silence while alive. Most historians see the attack as an act of revenge ordered by the chief of Allied air operations, British Air Marshall Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris, who, in the Casablanca meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, was given command over all strategic air forces on the Western Front at the time when General Dwight Eisenhower was given command over all Allied forces on the Western front. Dr. Westie often stated in public speeches that he is certain he would have faced a firing squad before he would have participated in the Dresden raid, had he known then what the Allies' Air Forces Command had planned for Dresden. It was his intention that revenues from a German edition of "Ash Wednesday '45," as well as his share of any film rights, be contributed to the reconstruction of the Frauenkirsche church in Dresden (under way for decades and scheduled for completion in 2004). After the war, Westie devoted his life to the cause of peace, which he called "humanity among humans." While his interests tended strongly toward literature, he chose to study sociology and psychology, fields in which he felt he could, through teaching and research, more directly serve the cause of humane human relations. He spent his career exploring the question: How do groups of people come to hate other groups, often to the point of destruction of one group by another? He was regarded as a pioneer in the scientific study of racial and ethnic relations. Ever mindful of the murder of millions of Jews by Adolf Hitler and his followers, Westie spent much of his research and teaching career trying to understand the psychological attributes of authoritarian personalities: people who can't live with their ambivalence, who have deep-lying hostility toward groups different from their own, great fear of those they regard as "strange" and all-consuming convictions that their own nation, community, church, language, cultural styles are the standards whereby all others should be judged. He felt that, too often, Christianity is distorted by attempts to justify authoritarian social systems. This was a source of great sadness to him because he was, as he called himself, a "Sermon on the Mount Christian - the most subversive kind." While "Ash Wednesday '45" has been called the most vivid account ever written on the horrors of the air war in World War II (a reviewer in the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet called it "the best war book since 'All Quiet on the Western Front' "), its purpose in the author's mind was to speak to the moral issues of warfare, first by having the reader experience the air war in Europe in all its horror, then by having the leading character face a moral choice on the morning of the Dresden raid - a moral choice he himself would have faced had he known of the Allied High Command's plans for the total destruction of the civilian population of Dresden. "Ash Wednesday '45" was published by Wahr Publishing, Ann Arbor, in 1995 and 1996, making best-seller lists in Northern Michigan and Naples, Fla. It will be re-published this year by the Petoskey Press, along with a just- completed sequel. Dr. Westie graduated from Central Michigan University with degrees in music and physics, and received a Ph.D. in sociology from Ohio State University. He was a Professor of Sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind., for 33 years (1949-1982). He also taught at Ohio State University, and more recently was an adjunct professor at Arizona State University. Dr. Westie sang in Methodist church choirs in Leland and Naples, Fla. Also a musician and composer, Westie had just completed a cantata, "Pacem In Terra (Peace on Earth)," which will debut in Michigan on Memorial Day weekend. Dr. Westie was an officer of national professional associations and a member of grant-giving foundation boards in New York and Washington, including the Fulbright Committee in Washington. He regarded "Ash Wednesday '45" as the most important of his many publications, calling it "the story of a man who finally chose to follow his conscience even unto death." Dr. Westie is survived by his beloved wife of 60 years, Margaret Westie; daughters Katharine Westie (Fred Tasker) of Miami, Fla., and Anne Wiesen (Daniel) of Glen Arbor; son, Kurt Westie (Jodi) of Nashville Ind.; grandchildren, Matthew, Alex, Sarah and Claire Wiesen, Anne-Marie Tasker, Alison Jacobs (Roland), Courtenay Hoffman (Mark) and Julianna Kiefer. He also leaves behind great-grandchildren, Kurt and Audrey Hoffman and Shelby and Jackson Jacobs; and his sister, Helen Westie Wetterholt of Empire. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Joanna Westie Gell (Richard); grandson, Benjamin Wiesen; and his brother, Dr. Charles W. Westie (Ardith). A celebration of his life will be held at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 16, at the Leland United Methodist Church, 106 N. Fourth St., Leland, (231-256-9161). In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Habitat for Humanity, of Collier County, Fla., (239)775-0036; or Habitat for Humanity, Grand Traverse Region, (231) 941-4663. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/leelanau/photos/tombstones/maplegroveempire/gell70714gph.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mifiles/ File size: 19.0 Kb