It is Provost, Like Provost of a College

 

It is Provost, Like Provost of a College

            Before anyone attempts to pronounce my last name, I remind them it sounds like a college administrator. It did not use to be Provost; rather, it was Prevost.[1] My paternal family name is French, and my grandfather was a genealogist who found descendants that trace back to the 1500s. Nonetheless, Leander Provost, my great-great-grandfather, was the first Provost to immigrate from Quebec to Holyoke, Massachusetts, sometime between 1861 and 1880.[2] Not long after, my great-grandfather, Leo Provost was born in 1883.[3] My grandfather left me a letter after his death providing a sufficient amount of information on our family history. He stated that his father was a short but tough man that lived well into the 1970s. He worked at a shoe store making ends meet for his 11 children; in that time, he only had two boys, one dying at 56. The other was his youngest child Richard Provost born in 1927.[4]

            Nonetheless, he would later lie about his age on his military draft card to enter the armed forces as a Corpsmen.[5] Before entering the service, he worked as a delivery boy in Holyoke since his father forced him to pay rent as early as nine. He told me it was an excellent job because the two Jewish men he worked for would always give him a ham on Christmas.[6] Nonetheless, he accepted the hard poverty. Many boys picked on him for a birth mark that covered half his face. He never forgave them as these boys were Catholic, and he disdained the Catholic Church throughout the rest of his life; nonetheless, he accepted the hard poverty he and his family lived in. Many boys picked on him for a birth mark that covered half his face. He never forgave them as these boys were Catholic, and he disdained the Catholic Church throughout the rest of his life.[7] However, this bullying did not keep him from going into the military in 1944. He was immediately sent off to the Pacific theatre.[8] In this period, he took care of wounded marines from the Bataan Death March, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.[9]

            After the war, Richard Provost attended Holyoke Community College and then transferred to Drake University in Iowa. Although, recalled to service during the Korean War. He never said much about his service then, and he never told us where he was stationed. The only comment he ever made about his service was that he heard too many men cry for their mothers.[10] However, he was a happy man when he came home as he married Lynn Easter, the daughter of a successful business owner. He was determined after the war to work towards his doctorate and moved to College Station, Texas. He would then receive his Ph.D. in psychology, but he taught both sociology and psychology at Texas A&M, Northern Illinois, East Texas State, Kearney State, and Southwestern Community College.[11]

            My grandfather experienced unspeakable hardship throughout most of his life, taking on the challenges of extreme poverty. He then was not only called to serve the country once but two times. He did not stop there, as he understood that education was a way out of poverty. He later saved enough money for both my sister and me to attend college. It was his dream to see his grandchildren graduate from both high school and college. He saw my sister achieve both, but unfortunately, he died in 2014. His passing was two years before I achieved my B.A. from Missouri State University. I promised him that I would receive a doctorate in history as it was his passion and mine. Education is everything to the Provost family.



Bibliography

Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.

Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

GODBOUT, P. ARCHANGE. "Familles Venues de la Rochelle en Canada." Rapport des Archives Nationales du Quebec, vol. 48 (1970), pp. 129-367, published by the Ministere des Affaires Culturelles in Quebec, 1971.

“Obituaries.” Creston News Advertiser, (Creston, Iowa), Nov. 25, 2014.

Provost, Richard. “To My Grandson.” Letter, 2014.

The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; Draft Registration Cards for Massachusetts, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 795.

 


[2] Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line], (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010).

[4] Richard Provost, “To My Grandson” (Letter, 2014).

[6] Richard Provost, “To My Grandson” (Letter, 2014).

[7] Ibid.

[10] Richard Provost, “To My Grandson” (Letter, 2014).

[11] “Obituaries,” Creston News Advertiser, (Creston, Iowa), Nov. 25, 2014.

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