From Springdale to the Virgin Islands
A local war veteran, disabled in the line of duty, earns a high-level post in the U.S. government after two years of university study.
Disabled in war service entitling him to vocational training at the expense of the government, Otto G. McDonough of Seattle, upon completing two years of study at the University of Washington, has just received an appointment as assistant director of education of the Virgin Islands. This announcement was made recently by the U.S. Veterans' Bureau. McDonough will leave Springdale, Wash., where his parents live, August 10, to take up his new duties, which pay him a salary of $2,400 a year. He is only 31 years of age. Mr. McDonough was a bookkeeper before the war. During his service with the 11th Company, Eighth Regiment, U.S. Marines, he suffered an attack of pleurisy which developed into tuberculosis, since arrested. While at the University of Washington, he majored in Liberal Arts.
“Disabled in war service entitling him to vocational training at the expense of the government.”
Post-war vocational training and reintegration programs were critical in the 1920s to ensure veterans had a path forward after the trauma of the Great War. McDonough’s transition from a bookkeeper to an educator abroad shows the transformative power of the G.I. style educational benefits of that era.
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