Me and Dr. Hardgrove

I'm a complete and total nerd.

I'm a bookworm. Always have been and always will be. While my friends were out fixing cars and playing sports, I was reading about history and doing work on my family tree.

My heroes were different. My view of "celebrities" was different. Case in point, Dr. Maurice Hardgrove. All my youth, there was this really cool model of the Titanic on top of the large card catalogue in the Fond du Lac Public Library. I always glanced up at it in the adult section (it wasn't in the kids'). One day I looked more closely at the sign inside the glass case it was in and it said that it was built by Dr. Maurice Hardgrove. I looked closer and it said that not only did he make it, but he was on the Carpathia (the ship that picked up the survivors of the Titanic) when he was a boy. This was so cool to me. The odds of me meeting one of the remaining survivors of the Titanic at age 15? 0% chance. This was the next best thing. He was equally important from a different aspect of the tragedy we all know. He was my celebrity. I wanted to meet him. I wanted his autograph.

I told my mom. I was 15. "If you want to get me something for my birthday, I'll take Dr. Hardgrove's autograph." I didn't think my mom took it seriously.

She did.

It was the summer of 1990, I was 15 and we came to Milwaukee and I met Dr. Hardgrove and his wife. They were two of the nicest people you could possibly meet. We spent a few hours at their home. After a bit, Dr. Hardgrove stood up and went to a door and said to come with him. I went down to his basement and he pointed at a box, "Jack, can you please bring up that box?" I gladly obliged and brought it upstairs. It turned out to be his box of Titanic items (newsletters from the Titanic Historical Society and his postcards that he kept since he was a boy from the Carpathia and this great photo of him, with his parents, aunt & uncle, and grandparents -- grandfather was a Civil War vet). They were from Fond du Lac and I knew the names. His uncle, Dr. Frank McGauley pronounced my great-grandfather dead on April 3, 1916. His grandfather, the Civil War vet, was Maurice McKenna, a well respected attorney in Fond du Lac, who wrote the 1912 History of Fond du Lac County. They were also were friends with Fond du Lac's most prominent doctor, William Minahan, who would go down on the Titanic just two nights after this photo was taken.

Young, 8 year old Dr. Hardgrove is standing right over his grandfather's shoulder. I asked him what he remembered and he told me that he couldn't sleep that night and he snuck out of the cabin and went into the hallway. He saw two crewmembers who were talking about how the ship was turning around. Then they saw him and told him he better get back to his cabin. He also remembered that everyone tried to bring warm blankets and clothes up to the deck after the survivors were on board.

Didn't read that in a book. I heard it first hand.

The shocking conclusion? Dr. Hargrove tells me to take the box. He and his wife have no children and he knows it will be in good hands, with someone that will respect the items. I was stunned.

I became an "honorary family member", if you will. Does this kind of thing really happen? Yes it does. It made everything I knew about the Titanic even more personal. Dr. Minahan was my great-grandparents' physician; he even saved my great-grandmother's life in 1906. Now, here in 1990, another part of the Titanic legend became personal.

With the centennial of this tragedy I pulled out the box that's been undisturbed for a few years. My mouth dropped. Beyond the items I recalled, inside were old, personal photos of Dr. Hardgrove and his family. Now, I need to share them with the world. This is from my friend, who brushed history 100 years ago.

Dr. Hardgrove and his parents.



Dr. Hardgrove (Class of 1921) went to my high school, Fond du Lac High and played football there, five years before my grandpa did.

Dr. Hardgrove as a young man, entering medical school.

Dr. Hardgrove and his medical schoolmates.

Who does this? Who passes on his personal, private and irreplacable photos to someone he just met? All I can think is that he was touched that someone viewed him as someone to look up to, especially a young teenager. Rediscovering this the other week made this even more special to me. I will always have a special connection and affection for Dr. Hardgrove.

Unfortunately, Dr. Hardgrove passed away several years ago. I can assure you that although he is gone, he will not be forgotten. That is why I'm writing this now; to share his story with you.

I was so lucky to not only have one of my little dreams achieved, but it was so much more. It still ripples and affects me to this day, 22 years later.

Is there a lesson here? I guess so. Always be honest, genuine and caring in life. You never know how it will impact someone else.

God bless Dr. Hardgrove and his family. God bless the Carpathia. God bless the souls and families affected by the Titanic tragedy. It was a century ago, yes, but it affected people then and now. It is so important to remember. This is why history is important.

It's personal.



The black and white photo postcard is another gift from Dr. Hardgrove. It was a postcard he actually kept from the Carpathia, April 1912.