This story originally appeared in the November 2025 issue of Town&Gown magazine.
The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Surviving veterans are in their 90s or older. The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey estimates that in 2022 — three years ago — Centre County had 6,814 veterans, including a rough estimate of 162 World War II veterans — possibly as few as 88.
With each year that passes, fewer veterans remain to speak about their experiences. Robert “Pete” Lauck and Paul Grove, two 100-year-old World War II veterans who are lifelong Centre County residents, share here what the war and life afterward were like for them.
Robert ‘Pete’ Lauck
Robert “Pete” Lauck, of Pine Grove Mills, served in the U.S. Army during World War II as a Technician 5th Grade in Battery A of the 190th Field Artillery Battalion.
“I wanted to join,” he says. “I had two brothers in, and we were at war. I thought it was the thing to do.”
He was one of seven children, the son of Olive Lauck and George W. Lauck Sr. The elder Lauck had served in the Boal Troop, a local militia based in Boalsburg that was federalized for World War I.
However, Pete’s plans were delayed because his two older brothers, Jim and George Jr., were serving in the Army and the family wanted him to stay home to work in Lauck’s Garage, the family business. However, he was drafted in October 1943, inducted that November, and served 27 months, until January 1946.
“I never regretted it,” he says.
After basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Lauck served stateside until he was deployed to England in May 1944, a 14-day trip by sea. His unit arrived at Normandy, France, nine days after the Allies’ D-Day invasion.
A German plane strafed the men as they rode on the back of a truck in the dark. They leaped off the truck into a ditch and stayed there all night.
“I spent the first night in a ditch,” Lauck recalls.
As a survey and instrument man, Lauck worked behind the front lines, using surveying techniques, terrain maps, and a scope to locate and mark positions with stakes for the battalion’s four 155 mm guns. Nicknamed “Long Toms,” the guns had 21-foot barrels and could shoot 15 miles.
Commands from headquarters told the gun section how many degrees high to position the barrels. The height determined how far the shells went.
“Those guns were pretty accurate,” Lauck recalls.
“My outfit — we were behind the lines far enough. During the Battle of the Bulge, it was a little upsetting.”
His battalion shot down a plane on New Year’s Day, 1945, and he made crosses out of the Plexiglas for his mother and oldest sister.
Lauck served in France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, and Czechoslovakia.
“I was in five major battles. I have five stars.” He attained the rank of corporal and was awarded four medals, an honorable service button, and a marksman badge with carbine bar.
“I almost stayed in after the war but decided not to. They wanted me to stay in Germany in the army of occupation. I thought better of it.”
After the war, he worked at Lauck’s Garage, graduated from the Altoona School of Commerce in 1950, and worked for Penn State in bookkeeping, accounting, and personnel for 34 years.
Lauck met his future wife in August 1950, when friends brought Dorothy Lou “Dot” Rishel and her toddler along on a visit to the Lauck family camp in Stone Valley. The couple got engaged at Christmas time, married the following July, and raised four daughters — Linda, Cindy, Kathy, and Kimberly. Lauck has 19 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren, and five great-great-grandchildren.
“We were married 70 years,” he says of his wife, who passed away in 2021. “We always had a lot of fun teasing each other.”
Lauck is the last living charter member of VFW Post 5825 in Pine Grove Mills, which was chartered in 1950. He served a one-year term as adjutant, recording the minutes, and helped to construct the new building. His wife was a charter member of the post auxiliary, and their daughters are lifelong members. Daughter Cindy has served as a trustee.
He volunteered at what was then Centre Community Hospital’s snack bar for 30 years, along with his two older brothers. “It was a lot of fun. I met a lot of people.”
Lauck served as treasurer of the Ferguson Township Sewer and Water Authority for five years and volunteered at Pine Grove Mills Presbyterian Church and in his community.
“My brother and I hung paper for people in Pine Grove Mills free of charge — mostly older people. We hung paper just for the fun of it and helped people out.”
Reflecting on his life, he says, “A hundred years. I don’t know how I made it that long. Just can’t believe I’m 100.”
Lauck still lives in his own house in Pine Grove Mills with his faithful Pomeranian, Samantha, and enjoys having family close by. Except for his time in the Army and attending school in Altoona, he has lived within the same two blocks.
“I’m not sorry I never left. … Almost did leave one time. I just like it here. We were always a close-knit family.”
Paul Grove
Bellefonte native Paul Grove served in the military police, infantry, and cavalry of the U.S. Army during World War II.
“Not many soldiers went to all the different units that I did,” he says. “It was different with me.”
His older brother, Leonard, served in the military police as well.
“I didn’t join. I was drafted,” he says. His draft card arrived when he was a senior in high school. He graduated, then boarded the train to Fort Indiantown Gap on July 4, 1943, and completed basic training at Fort Custer, Michigan.
As an MP, he guarded German prisoners at Camp Howze, Texas; on a train to Fort Niagara, New York; and in an old Civilian Conservation Corps camp with no name.
Then he was shipped to Camp Butner, North Carolina. “That’s infantry,” he says. “A repo depot for replacements. … That’s how I got into the 89th Infantry.”
He says anything was better than guarding German prisoners.
On New Year’s Day, 1945, the division departed from Boston on a Navy ship for a 20-day trip to Le Havre, France.
“It was 10 below zero when we got off that ship.” A whole truckload of men was packed onto a flatbed truck, standing up, for the four-hour trip to Camp Lucky Strike.
They didn’t have any heat, and when they walked through the snow on country roads, their boots were “frozen like a hunk of ice.”
Coming out of France, Grove and 13 others, including the company commander, attempted to cross the Rhine River at night in a 14-man wooden boat. Another soldier asked Grove to switch places with him.
“We got shot up real bad. A mortar shell.” The boat exploded. When Grove hit the water, he pushed off his helmet and wool cap, which knocked his glasses off. He swam to the German side — the sole survivor. He says he survived because he switched places.
While he was in Europe, he says, “The government sent me on a week’s vacation at the Riviera. Busby Hotel. All we did was walk around and see where the girls were. We didn’t have anything else to do. No money to buy anything.”
Grove helped liberate the Ohrdruf concentration camp in Germany — the first Nazi camp liberated by U.S. troops.
He served as a replacement in the 84th Infantry, and briefly served in the 4th Cavalry in Vienna, Austria, before returning by Navy ship to the U.S.
Grove was discharged in April 1946, and given a paid train ticket to Lewistown. He arrived at night and had to hitchhike home to Bellefonte.
“I could have stayed another three months to get the full three years, but went home.” He says the Army would have sent him to Japan and he didn’t want to go.
Grove has framed the dozen or so medals, service ribbons, and badges he was awarded. He points to the Bronze Star he received after he crossed the Rhine. “The Germans really gave it to us. I earned that son of a gun.”
Still, “it wasn’t all nasty,” he says. “There were a lot of good friends, especially Thompson and Bates.” He, Stan Bates, and their wives visited each other after the war.
Grove married Wava Marie Ripka of Centre Hall in 1951, and has two children, Gary and Tshana, four grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
In 1946, he went to autobody school in Chicago, then worked for Keckler Chevrolet in Bellefonte. After the owner passed away, Grove opened Scotty and Paul’s Body Shop with his partner, Frank Ramage. After retiring, he drove part-time for the Stocker and Mercedes dealerships. “I got to know a lot of people, especially doctors and lawyers.”
As members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, he and Wava volunteered in the thrift shop for 25 years.
They were also avid square dancers and members of the Centre Squares for 20 years. “It’s the best thing I ever did,” Grove says.
He and Wava traveled to 48 U.S. states and to Europe, and enjoyed going to yard sales before she passed away in 2020. Grove collected nutcrackers, Delft china, and Annalee fabric dolls.
Grove still lives in his own home in Houserville, with family nearby. He quit his part-time driving job at 90, and continued driving his own car until 99.
“We worked hard and played hard,” Grove says. T&G
Karen Dabney is a freelance writer in State College.
