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Ewald Krauklin
by Jean Loesch Krauklin

Up and Away
Here is the house in Methuen, Mass., where Ewald spent his young days with his family of mother, father (both immigrants from Latvia in 1910 or so), one brother, Edmund, and an aunt and uncle also from Latvia who stayed there some of the time. It's on a pleasant short street and has a really pretty garden. After Ewald' parents died, he came back home to live in the house (early retirement, about 12 years ago), and this is where he and I spent the summer of '83, aside from our many short trips and one long one.
Ewald's father was a skilled carpenter and worked in Lawrence. He was also an avid amateur photographer, which is why there are hundreds of pictures in the house of all sorts of subjects. His mother was quick to learn English and to adapt to American life; she was the first in the family to get a car & learn to drive, to become a citizen, to take advantage of cultural opportunities. She was determined to give her eldest son, particularly, the kind of life she would like to have had herself, given the chance. He learned to speak Latvian along with English, for one thing.
So at the age of 7 Ewald started the violin. Just like in the cartoons, he wanted to be playing ball with the other kids, but persevered, and pretty soon Professor Record, his teacher, had an outstanding pupil on his hands. Ewald really had a lot of talent, and was very smart besides. It wasn't long before he was known around the area as a "child prodigy", as local newspaper clippings put it.
When he was in school it was Depression time, and the whole Krauklin family went to work to help out. Ewald's jobs were in the local Lawrence mills, in a grocery store, and especially in a bicycle shop, where he did rentals and repairs after school and on weekends. A few of his violin solo jobs paid, but very little in those days.
After high school graduation, Ewald was awarded a scholarship (partial) to the New England Conservatory. This was in 1938. So he went back and forth on the train every day, practiced hard, had a good teacher, and was doing very well indeed, with a view perhaps to playing in a symphony or even aiming for a concert career.
It was in his third year that I met Ewald. He was playing in the NYA Symphony (National Young Administration, a Roosevelt era federally sponsored employment situation) and it met every afternoon at a building on the Charles River right near where I was going to secretarial school at Katharine Gibbs on Marlborough Street. I heard about this orchestra and used to drop in to hear it rehearse on my way home from school. Pretty soon I got acquainted with some of the young people, and one of them was Ewald in the first violin section. This picture shows about how he looked at that time tall, slim, black wavy hair, and quiet and shy.
He took me along when the orchestra did broadcasts over the radio, and to concerts by the Conservatory, and to Pops concerts etc. Also a movie when he could afford it. He had an old Packard he was quite proud of, and of course it was unusual for a college student to have a car in those days. Sometimes in the evening he would drive his mother into Boston where she sang in a Latvian choral group, and while she was there Ewald would drop in at my dorm at No. 96 The Fenway and we would go off riding. Oddly, although he knew I could play the flute, he never heard me play it until 40 years later, nor did I ever hear him play alone on the violin until we re-met in 1982.
1941 of course meant that World War II had begun, and in the spring of 1942 Ewald enlisted; he went into the Signal Corps after basic training. He went to several schools studying radar, at Northeastern for one. After he left there (I was working in Boston at this time) we kept in touch by letters for a year or so. My last letter to him (which he still has) announced my marriage. This was no surprise to Ewald, as we had never had serious intentions.
So off went Ewald to Italy in the service. Here are some pictures of his early army career. In Italy Ewald was an Airborne Radar Specialist. He flew in planes doing tasks such as air-supplying the Italian Partisans operating behind the German lines, and also participated in the invasion of Southern France. After the German surrender in 1945 he went back to be reassigned, but on his way to the Pacific Theater Japan also surrendered.
After WW II the military found that it needed electronic specialists to maintain their foreign bases and they turned to private industry for help. Ewald was working for Philco in Philadelphia, and on a contract basis he went to Japan with the occupation forces. During the next 10 years or so Ewald lived mostly in Japan and (from what I hear from other co-workers I have met) he was considered a genuine genius at problem solving as well as organizing big projects. He got to see and work in almost every city in Japan, as well as on ships off Korea. He was in charge of 175 technicians.
Promoted again, he moved back to Philadelphia where he was manager of 600 technicians stationed worldwide. At this time there was a good deal of traveling about, as far as Iran, etc.
Over the years in Japan Ewald found he became very much interested in Japanese art--he bought all he could of woodblock prints, netsuke, scrolls, early illustrated books and dozens of other things that he suspected would become valuable later on. He shipped carton after carton home to Methuen, where his mother patiently stashed them away. He also got into Japanese stamp collecting and spoke Japanese well enough to join and enjoy a stamp collecting club, he being the only American member at the time.
Also in the collecting line, in Philadelphia he began buying up historical materials found in antique shops, bookstores, art shops, etc., and continued shipping them to his Mass. home, as he was still living in hotels, the most convenient way for a bachelor. The house in Methuen was becoming a museum...
In 1970 Ewald's father died, and his mother had died sometime earlier. This left the old family home empty. Ewald by this time was tired of his rat-race managing job and had no aspirations to rise higher in the hierarchy at Philco-Ford, so at age 50 he quit with a small pension and returned to the old homestead. Now he began the task of organizing his collections and accumulations. For a change of pace he worked on the two Porches he had acquired, one from Japan, a 1959 silver colored convertible, and a 1960 cream colored coupe. These have required many hours of hard work to maintain in the great condition they're in now.
After 35 years of not touching a violin, Ewald began to wonder if he could still play. Having collected 20 or so of these, he fixed one up as his favorite and joined a small orchestra at Phillips Andover Academy. The playing ability came back quickly, and Ewald also started to play a viola in order to have more versatility. He joined the Nashua Symphony and from there he got into a string quartet, which call themselves The Francois Wineau Quartet.
Now it was 1982, and Ewald expected he would live out his life contentedly (but rather lonely) at 18 Miller Street. He has a family nearby--his brother married and had two children, who in turn have their own children, and they always included him in family doings.
One night after symphony rehearsal, Art Olsson handed Ewald a copy of the Amateur Chamber Music Players directory, covering the "western hemisphere". Leafing through it at home, Ewald did a double take when he saw my name listed under St. Croix, Virgin Islands. He decided to write & say hello and break the 40-year hiatus.
Receiving his note, I was flabbergasted to say the least. I answered it, with a note I hoped was as nice as his was. After a few letters we found out we were both single, and then the letters went faster--plus phone calls. We decided to meet on my next trip north. This was a great success; his friends Art and Georgia Olsson put me up at their home in Nashua, and Ewald collected me every day for various trips & outings.
The rest of this story you all know pretty well...and our little wedding on October 29 was just as we wanted it, although it got a little bigger than we thought. It was to be only us and the Olsson's (Ewald is still kind of shy & embarrassed at times) but Ken & Sharon came (bringing Uncle Dave who was on his way back from Deer Isle), and Ewald's brother and most of his family came too. Olsson's gave us a lovely champagne party at their home, and some of us went and had dinner together at the Charte House in Nashua.
We got my ring in England--it has a row of 5 diamonds on top, a style I like very much. We didn't get Ewald's ordered on time; in fact it still isn't ordered, so we used a substitute, I hope this means good luck. We'll find one soon, probably here.
I hope you feel you know Ewald a little better now, and I am sure you will agree that your mom is in good hands. We plan to live in St.Croix from Oct - May and up north the rest of the year. We may settle in southern New Hampshire after another year or so. Ewald wants to get out of Massachusetts for tax reasons as he starts to dispose of his collections. Hey, does anybody want a Revolutionary War soldier's personal diary??? How about a guitar with 15 strings???

Any comments or questions? Contact
louise@loesch.net
S i t e d e s i g n b y W e b f a i r

Home Family History Family Tree Photo Album Reminiscing Reunion Info Family News Address Book From Our Kitchen		Ewald Krauklin by Jean Loesch Krauklin Here is the house in Methuen, Mass., where Ewald spent his young days with his family of mother, father (both immigrants from Latvia in 1910 or so), one brother, Edmund, and an aunt and uncle also from Latvia who stayed there some of the time. It's on a pleasant short street and has a really pretty garden. After Ewald' parents died, he came back home to live in the house (early retirement, about 12 years ago), and this is where he and I spent the summer of '83, aside from our many short trips and one long one. Ewald's father was a skilled carpenter and worked in Lawrence. He was also an avid amateur photographer, which is why there are hundreds of pictures in the house of all sorts of subjects. His mother was quick to learn English and to adapt to American life; she was the first in the family to get a car & learn to drive, to become a citizen, to take advantage of cultural opportunities. She was determined to give her eldest son, particularly, the kind of life she would like to have had herself, given the chance. He learned to speak Latvian along with English, for one thing. So at the age of 7 Ewald started the violin. Just like in the cartoons, he wanted to be playing ball with the other kids, but persevered, and pretty soon Professor Record, his teacher, had an outstanding pupil on his hands. Ewald really had a lot of talent, and was very smart besides. It wasn't long before he was known around the area as a "child prodigy", as local newspaper clippings put it. When he was in school it was Depression time, and the whole Krauklin family went to work to help out. Ewald's jobs were in the local Lawrence mills, in a grocery store, and especially in a bicycle shop, where he did rentals and repairs after school and on weekends. A few of his violin solo jobs paid, but very little in those days. After high school graduation, Ewald was awarded a scholarship (partial) to the New England Conservatory. This was in 1938. So he went back and forth on the train every day, practiced hard, had a good teacher, and was doing very well indeed, with a view perhaps to playing in a symphony or even aiming for a concert career. It was in his third year that I met Ewald. He was playing in the NYA Symphony (National Young Administration, a Roosevelt era federally sponsored employment situation) and it met every afternoon at a building on the Charles River right near where I was going to secretarial school at Katharine Gibbs on Marlborough Street. I heard about this orchestra and used to drop in to hear it rehearse on my way home from school. Pretty soon I got acquainted with some of the young people, and one of them was Ewald in the first violin section. This picture shows about how he looked at that time tall, slim, black wavy hair, and quiet and shy. He took me along when the orchestra did broadcasts over the radio, and to concerts by the Conservatory, and to Pops concerts etc. Also a movie when he could afford it. He had an old Packard he was quite proud of, and of course it was unusual for a college student to have a car in those days. Sometimes in the evening he would drive his mother into Boston where she sang in a Latvian choral group, and while she was there Ewald would drop in at my dorm at No. 96 The Fenway and we would go off riding. Oddly, although he knew I could play the flute, he never heard me play it until 40 years later, nor did I ever hear him play alone on the violin until we re-met in 1982. 1941 of course meant that World War II had begun, and in the spring of 1942 Ewald enlisted; he went into the Signal Corps after basic training. He went to several schools studying radar, at Northeastern for one. After he left there (I was working in Boston at this time) we kept in touch by letters for a year or so. My last letter to him (which he still has) announced my marriage. This was no surprise to Ewald, as we had never had serious intentions. So off went Ewald to Italy in the service. Here are some pictures of his early army career. In Italy Ewald was an Airborne Radar Specialist. He flew in planes doing tasks such as air-supplying the Italian Partisans operating behind the German lines, and also participated in the invasion of Southern France. After the German surrender in 1945 he went back to be reassigned, but on his way to the Pacific Theater Japan also surrendered. After WW II the military found that it needed electronic specialists to maintain their foreign bases and they turned to private industry for help. Ewald was working for Philco in Philadelphia, and on a contract basis he went to Japan with the occupation forces. During the next 10 years or so Ewald lived mostly in Japan and (from what I hear from other co-workers I have met) he was considered a genuine genius at problem solving as well as organizing big projects. He got to see and work in almost every city in Japan, as well as on ships off Korea. He was in charge of 175 technicians. Promoted again, he moved back to Philadelphia where he was manager of 600 technicians stationed worldwide. At this time there was a good deal of traveling about, as far as Iran, etc. Over the years in Japan Ewald found he became very much interested in Japanese art--he bought all he could of woodblock prints, netsuke, scrolls, early illustrated books and dozens of other things that he suspected would become valuable later on. He shipped carton after carton home to Methuen, where his mother patiently stashed them away. He also got into Japanese stamp collecting and spoke Japanese well enough to join and enjoy a stamp collecting club, he being the only American member at the time. Also in the collecting line, in Philadelphia he began buying up historical materials found in antique shops, bookstores, art shops, etc., and continued shipping them to his Mass. home, as he was still living in hotels, the most convenient way for a bachelor. The house in Methuen was becoming a museum... In 1970 Ewald's father died, and his mother had died sometime earlier. This left the old family home empty. Ewald by this time was tired of his rat-race managing job and had no aspirations to rise higher in the hierarchy at Philco-Ford, so at age 50 he quit with a small pension and returned to the old homestead. Now he began the task of organizing his collections and accumulations. For a change of pace he worked on the two Porches he had acquired, one from Japan, a 1959 silver colored convertible, and a 1960 cream colored coupe. These have required many hours of hard work to maintain in the great condition they're in now. After 35 years of not touching a violin, Ewald began to wonder if he could still play. Having collected 20 or so of these, he fixed one up as his favorite and joined a small orchestra at Phillips Andover Academy. The playing ability came back quickly, and Ewald also started to play a viola in order to have more versatility. He joined the Nashua Symphony and from there he got into a string quartet, which call themselves The Francois Wineau Quartet. Now it was 1982, and Ewald expected he would live out his life contentedly (but rather lonely) at 18 Miller Street. He has a family nearby--his brother married and had two children, who in turn have their own children, and they always included him in family doings. One night after symphony rehearsal, Art Olsson handed Ewald a copy of the Amateur Chamber Music Players directory, covering the "western hemisphere". Leafing through it at home, Ewald did a double take when he saw my name listed under St. Croix, Virgin Islands. He decided to write & say hello and break the 40-year hiatus. Receiving his note, I was flabbergasted to say the least. I answered it, with a note I hoped was as nice as his was. After a few letters we found out we were both single, and then the letters went faster--plus phone calls. We decided to meet on my next trip north. This was a great success; his friends Art and Georgia Olsson put me up at their home in Nashua, and Ewald collected me every day for various trips & outings. The rest of this story you all know pretty well...and our little wedding on October 29 was just as we wanted it, although it got a little bigger than we thought. It was to be only us and the Olsson's (Ewald is still kind of shy & embarrassed at times) but Ken & Sharon came (bringing Uncle Dave who was on his way back from Deer Isle), and Ewald's brother and most of his family came too. Olsson's gave us a lovely champagne party at their home, and some of us went and had dinner together at the Charte House in Nashua. We got my ring in England--it has a row of 5 diamonds on top, a style I like very much. We didn't get Ewald's ordered on time; in fact it still isn't ordered, so we used a substitute, I hope this means good luck. We'll find one soon, probably here. I hope you feel you know Ewald a little better now, and I am sure you will agree that your mom is in good hands. We plan to live in St.Croix from Oct - May and up north the rest of the year. We may settle in southern New Hampshire after another year or so. Ewald wants to get out of Massachusetts for tax reasons as he starts to dispose of his collections. Hey, does anybody want a Revolutionary War soldier's personal diary??? How about a guitar with 15 strings???
		Any comments or questions? Contact louise@loesch.net S i t e d e s i g n b y W e b f a i r