Drafted

This is a compendium of transcriptions and images of letters John H. Romani wrote to his family members from March 1943 to January 1946 as a American GI deployed in the European theater during World War II. From a humble upbringing as the Italian-American son of a quarry operator in New Hampshire, Dr. John H. Romani was able to leverage the benefits of the GI Bill to go on to a distinguished academic career in public health.

This is a compendium of transcriptions and images of letters John H. Romani wrote to his family members from March 1943 to January 1946 as a American GI deployed in the European theater during World War II. From a humble upbringing as the Italian-American son of a quarry operator in New Hampshire, Dr. John H. Romani was able to leverage the benefits of the GI Bill to go on to a distinguished academic career in public health. Barbara Anderson enhances the transcriptions with intermittent narratives of events before, during, and following John's deployment.

Born in Milan Italy on March 6, 1925, John Henry Romani was the son of Henry A. and B. Hazel Pettengill Romani. He grew up in Milford, New Hampshire and was drafted immediately after high school into the 309th regiment of the 78th infantry division of the US Army for World War II. After his military service, he attended the University of New Hampshire from which he received his bachelor's and master's degrees in Government. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan. He held faculty appointments at the University of New Hampshire, Western Michigan University and the University of Pittsburgh prior to joining the faculty of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where he served for over 30 years. He was Associate Dean of that School as well as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs of the University. He also served as the President of the American Public Health Association and briefly as Vice Chancellor and Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Throughout his career he worked with a wide variety of governmental and non-governmental agencies on issues associated with the organization and administration of public health activities, both domestically and internationally. John married his first wife, Nina Pettengill in 1954 and had two sons, David and Paul. He married his second wife, Barbara Anderson, in 1994, who already had one daughter, Theresa. He had three granddaughters, Heather, Emily, and Celia, and one step-grandson, Davos. He passed away in Ann Arbor, Michigan on July 8, 2015.