Hargrove Van de Graaff
Coleman Hargrove "Hog" Van de Graaff (born September 7, 1893 in Tuscaloosa; died January 2, 1938 in Gulfport, Mississippi) was a World War I veteran and assistant coach for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team.
Van de Graaff was the second son of Judge Adrian Van de Graaff Sr and his wife, the former Minnie Cherokee Hargrove. He graduated from Tuscaloosa High School in 1910 and enrolled at the University of Alabama, where he lettered in football, baseball, and track. After graduating he studied law for a year and was a coach of the freshman football team at the University. In 1916 he joined the military and served on the Mexican border. During World War I he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and sent to France as an artillery liaison officer. He was promoted to first lieutenant and was awarded two Croix de Guerre and a Distinguished Service Cross.
Van de Graaff returned home in 1919. After his father's death in 1922 he took responsibility for overseeing the family's extensive land holdings, including a working farm at the former Pettway Plantation at Gee's Bend which he sold the United States in 1935 for use as an experimental station for "negro resettlement". He was active in the American Legion and was president of Post 34 when it was named in memory of his close friend, Farley Moody, who had died in the Argonne. He cared for his older brother, Adrian Jr until his death in 1936. Van de Graaff, the brother-in-law of influential aviator Asa Rountree Jr until his sister's death in 1934, also lobbied actively for development of an airfield in Tuscaloosa, and succeeded in securing federal funds for the project.
Van de Graaff never married. In June 1937 he was admitted to the Gulfport Veterans Hospital in Mississippi for treatment of a nervous disorder that left him unable to sustain himself. He died in January 1938 and was buried in a family plot at Evergreen Cemetery. He was survived by his two brothers William and Robert Van de Graaff. When Tuscaloosa's airfield opened in 1940 it was dedicated as Van de Graaff Field in his honor.
References
- "Hargrove Van De Graaff Dies At Veterans Hospital in Gulfport, Miss." (January 3, 1938) The Tuscaloosa News
- “Coleman Hargrove Van de Graaff, 1893-1938” Tuscaloosa Area Virtual Museum - accessed April 1, 2023
External links
- Coleman Hargrove Van de Graaff at Findagrave.com
[[Category::Alabama Crimson Tide football coaches]]