Dr. Ted Cobun . . . From Dachau to Jacksonville
© 2001 Carole Moore
Both beauty and beasts inhabit Dr. Ted Cobun's world The beauty is the kind Cobun creates with his own hands, deftly turning rough hunks of wood into delicate birds, polished saints
and intricate walking sticks. The beasts are those he confronted in Europe while a young tank commander in the U.S. Army. It was during his travels across the European continent under Gen. George Patton's command that Cobun saw
what unfettered evil is capable of doing. He was at Dachau, one of many concentration camps, on the second day following its liberation. He remembers the emaciated survivors and the terrible smells. "The inmates were virtually
walking skeletons. It was amazing that any of them were still alive," Cobun says. But the horrors of war are put aside when the retired professor takes visitors on a tour of his second love -- wood carving. His first love, June,
is his wife and soulmate, aswell as the mother to their son, Nick. Cobun, who recently moved to Jacksonville, spends much of his free time carving intricate wood sculptures. He has a special touch with animals and birds and
lately has been dabbling in human figures. His living room is currently a haven for Diogenes, still in search of an honest man, Michaelangelo and St. Francis of Assisi. The kitchen provides a home for a cardinal, a moose with
remarkable lifelike antlers, an otter and a rooster, among others. Cobun took up wood carving when he left teaching. He didn't want to simply sit around. "When I retired, I thought 'I'm going to have to do something,'" he
said. He chose wood carving because it was something he'd tried before. Cobun says he gave it shot when he was a child, but without success. As a young man, he tried again, carving Indian figures from tent stakes. He's come a
long way since then. Gesturing to a large and very intricate hawk, he says it probably took him 300 to 400 hours to finish. "I'm extremely patient," Cobun says. That patience has served him well over the years. As a young man who
wanted to teach school, the Pittsburgh native found his career aspirations sidetracked by this country's entry into World War II. Drafted in 1941, Cobun was assigned to the U.S. Army armored forces. Starting as an enlisted
recruit, he rose quickly though wartime ranks, eventually finding himself commissioned as an officer, running a tank battalion. For awhile Cobun trained other tankers, learning such varied and unconventional skills as how to make
and deploy a Molotov cocktail. Then his unit was sent to wartime Europe, under the command of the legendary Gen. George Patton. As part of Patton's Third Army, he marched across France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and
Czechoslovakia. His unit hailed from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas and they were young men of which to be proud, Cobun says. "I loved it. The truth is, I had a high morale company," he said. Cobun, who speaks fluent German,
was often sent to prepare local villagers to house the American troops. He says the local Germans were usually accommodating at that late point in the war, but they still encountered resistance among the military units. He
remembers well when, following one battle, a young lieutenant from Connecticut ended up with dozens of prisoners of war on his hands. The German troops had surrendered to him following a shelling with white phosphorous. The march
stopped long enough to send the prisoners back to a POW camp behind the lines. But it's not a POW camp that stands out most in Cobun's memory. The most unforgettable memory he has involves one of Hitler's notorious concentration
camps: Dachau. Dachau, the very first in a long and horrifying string of concentration camps established by the Nazi regime, was located in an abandoned munitions factory. Used to house civilian prisoners from all over
Europe, it was a prime killing ground for the German SS. Established in 1933, it was originally used to house enemies of the state: Communists, Monarchists and others whose politics were repugnant to Hitler's regime. Jehovah's
Witnesses, who received some of the most horrifying treatment dished out by the SS, and prisoners released after serving their sentences, were soon added to the mix. Jews and gypsies were also brought to Dachau, including over
10,000 Jews following the infamous Crystal Night, although some achieved release and fled Germany forever. Members of the clergy who opposed Hitler, Poles and Russians also found themselves guests of the state with a Dachau address.
Once inside, inmates were stripped of their identities, their heads shaved, and worked literally to death, at least 11 hours a day, sometimes with a long, forced march to and from the place they labored. Hunger set in. It
was a cruel master. The only meal of the day was likely to be a thin gruel and piece of bread. Exhaustion and malnutrition coupled with excessive and extreme punishment and untreated illnesses such as typhoid to drastically
reduce the number of prisoners in the camp. In fact, 13,000 inmates died in the four months just prior to the liberation of Dachau alone. Dachau was liberated on April 29, 1945, by American troops. What they saw sickened them and
the rest of the free world. Cobun was there on April 30th. He remembers an odor like the smell of burning meat that emanated from the ovens used to create the dead, and the miserable conditions in which the survivors lived.
"There was a steady stream of trucks for the ones who were able to ride," Cobun remembers Sadly, many still died because their bodies were unused to eating and the sudden intake of food was more than their constitutions could
handle. So even after its liberation, Dachau was still killing its residents. In all, of the 200,000 registered prisoners, about 32,000 are known to have died. But the figures are misleading. Many -- such as those shot and dumped
into mass graves -- were not officially accounted for. It's a memory that will forever haunt Cobun, who returned to civilian life to complete his education and settle into a teaching career. That career took him many places: from
his five and one-half years in the service to Tennessee, New Hampshire, Alabama and Illinois. And during the journey, Cobun kept climbing higher and higher up the academic ladder. He obtained his doctorate and spent his final
academic years at Eastern Tennessee University, retiring in 1982. Having lost their oldest son, Ted, when he died at the age of 20 in Vietnam, it was natural for the Cobuns, who have been married for 57 years, to move to
Jacksonville to be near their surviving son, Nick. Nick, who also has earned his doctorate and who teaches at Coastal Carolina Community College, is also a minister and the father of two grown daughters. Ted also had a daughter
who is also grown. That leaves the Cobuns with a mass of grandchildren to love and spoil and it's obvious they enjoy being near enough to them to do so. But when Cobun isn't spoiling grandkids, he's busy carving his wood
projects. He says he often works from drawings and, in his garage workshop he keeps a number of anatomy and biology books. As a former biology teacher, he's interested in the workings of living forms. He uses his personal knowledge
and the reference books to fine tune the dimensions and keep them in proportion. For wood, Cobun uses many types, and says good carving wood is both hard to come by and expensive. Many times people want to commission him to carve
something. He welcomes the commissions and enjoys the work but cautions that he takes his time and charges by the hour. "I tell people I'll only charge them $5 an hour but I might take 500 hours to carve it," Cobun says with a
laugh. Looking back over a life that has led him from the famous Bridge at Remagen to creating a Carolina wren so lifelike one expects it to chirp, Cobun seems quite satisfied with the course he's taken. "I take my time and do
it the right way," he says, referring to his wood carvings. But it's a philosophy that shines through in each and every aspect of Cobun's life.
Home -- About the Humor Writer -- Getting Older . . . Not Better -- Potpourri
Encounters of the Kid Kind -- Life With A Man The Perils of Eileen -- The New Adventures of Eileen
--
My Serious Side --