Contributors

DAN GROSS

“I call myself a Ritchie Boy Wannabe so that if, in a future life, I can choose my occupation and vocation, I would be a Ritchie Boy.”

Daniel Gross was born in the Bronx (NYC) to secular Jewish parents who emigrated from Eastern Poland. He graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Cooper Union. He had a 38-year career as a Research Engineer with the National Bureau of Standards (later the National Institute of Science and Technology) performing research dealing primarily with the growth and spread of fires in buildings. Upon retirement, he volunteered with the National Park Service to conduct research on the recently declassified records at the National Archives (NARA) dealing with interrogation of enemy prisoners of war at Fort Hunt (“Post Office Box 1142”). He broadened his research at NARA to concentrate on the history and demographics of the training of intelligence officers at Camp Ritchie, Maryland during World War II. 

STEPHEN GOODELL

With degrees from Lake Forest College (BA) and the University of Maryland (MA), Goodell's professional career included positions at University College, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Office of Economic Opportunity, the LBJ Library Oral History Project, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. As a freelancer, Goodell raised over $23 million in grants to cultural institutions. He also helped produce Song of Survival, a film about women internees during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies. He and "Ritchie Boy" Guy Stern co-curated an exhibition at the Library of Congress about America's response to the 1933 Nazi book burnings, later at USHMM titled, Fighting the Fires of Hate. At USHMM, he produced more than three dozen exhibitions, several catalogs, and documents source books for classroom use: 1945: The Year of Liberation, and In Pursuit of Justice: Examining the Evidence of the Holocaust. He served also as the Museum's liaison with American World War II veterans. In retirement he has researched artifacts, documents & photographs for exhibits (Secret Heroes: The Ritchie Boys; Baltic DP's 1944-1952) and books (Rick Atkinson, The Guns at Last Light; Bruce Henderson, Sons & Soldiers, Bridge to the Sun; & Beverly Eddy, Psycho Boys, Ritchie Boys Secrets).

DR. DAVID S. FREY

Dr. David Frey is Professor of History and the founding Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He has taught at West Point since 2004, after a one-year stint as Lecturer at Columbia University. He received his PhD in Central European History from Columbia in 2003. At West Point, Dr. Frey co-created and co-chairs the Academy’s Diversity and Inclusion Studies Minor, the first minor of its type at any service academy. From 2018-20, he served as Chair of the Academy’s Civilian Faculty Senate equivalent. In addition, he has won multiple awards for teaching and scholarly excellence and was honored as an international agent of change by USHMM in 2018, part of its 25th anniversary ceremonies. As Director of West Point’s CHGS, Dr. Frey has spearheaded efforts to increase service academy and Defense Department awareness of, understanding of, research into, and efforts to prevent mass atrocity. He has testified in Senate hearings, advised the Office of the Secretary of Defense on atrocity prevention, and has served on USHMM’s Education Committee since 2015. Dr. Frey also helped create and is an executive committee member of the Consortium of Higher Education Centers for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Studies as well as its Northeast Regional affiliate. 

BEVERLEY DRIVER EDDY

Beverley Driver Eddy, now a Professor Emerita in German at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, grew up in Western Massachusetts, where she eagerly absorbed local history about King Philip's War, the French and Indian War, and the American Revolution. After a summer studying in Vienna, her interests turned to Germanic literatures and cultures. She studied for two years at the Freie Universität, Berlin, studied Norwegian in Oslo, pursued dissertation research in Copenhagen and Vienna, and went on to get a doctor's degree in Germanic literature at Bloomington, Indiana. In retirement, she turned back to her interest in history, and the manner in which the lives of individuals intersect with cataclysmic events. Living, as she did, on the outskirts of Gettysburg, Eddy became interested in the soldiers, many of them German and Austrian Jewish immigrants, who were trained there at a secret army camp and sent to Europe as specialists in psychological warfare. Once that work, "Camp Sharpe's 'Psycho Boys'" was completed, she turned to a more detailed examination of the parent camp in Cascade, Maryland, a military intelligence training center that produced the specialists who have become known as "Ritchie Boys." Her book, "Ritchie Boy Secrets: How a Force of Immigrants and Refugees Helped Win World War II" describes their training and their service on the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific. 

LANDON GROVE

Landon Grove grew up ten minutes from Fort Ritchie and has had several relatives work at Ritchie as secretaries and an electrician. His high school prom was actually held at Fort Ritchie! He taught public school from 2012-2022. He was the first director of Ritchie History Museum, where he was not only the museum director, but also grant writer, and property historian. He holds an undergraduate degree in History Education from Salisbury University and a Graduate Degree in United States History from Indiana University Bloomington. 

BERNIE LUBRAN

Bernie Lubran is the President of "The Friends of Camp Ritchie", an educational non-profit dedicated to preserving the lessons and importance of Camp Ritchie, Maryland, and the soldiers who trained there during WWII, now commonly called "The Ritchie Boys." Bernie enjoys helping Ritchie Boy family members share stories, photos, and memories through the Facebook page, “Ritchie Boys of WWII” which he has run for nearly a decade. His late father, Ritchie Boy Walter Lubran, was a German refugee who served in the US Army and trained in military intelligence at Camp Ritchie. Bernie and his wife reside in North Bethesda, Maryland.

JOSH FREELING

Josh Freeling is a native of Long Island, New York, now living just outside Charlotte, North Carolina. After graduating college, he managed a retail store, then became the IT director for an interior design school. He has a passion for genealogy, history, and his family. He is very active in the Scouting movement along with his wife and stepson. His interest genealogy brought him to discover that his great-uncle, Kurt Kugelmann, was a Ritchie Boy, which led him into the "Ritchie Boy" world. He is currently co-administrator of the "Ritchie Boys of WWII" Facebook page, along with Bernie Lubran with whom they share information and the stories of The Ritchie Boys. He is also the current administrator of this website.