Growing Up, Black & White Edition

by Harold L. Schoen

A delightful, honest memoir about growing up in a family of 13 children on a farm with no electricity, indoor plumbing or central heat and the life-changing effects of getting a college basketball scholarship.

Born in 1941, Hal was the fifth child and oldest boy in the Schoen family. He helped his parents and others in their neighborhood group to thresh wheat and oats and to butcher hogs, among many other farm chores.

The barn, woods, and creek were great settings for imaginative, unsupervised play for the Schoen children when they had leisure time. For evening entertainment, the family enjoyed listening on their large battery-powered radio to westerns, dramas, and comedies like The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, and Father Knows Best.

Hal and many of his siblings developed a love of reading in spite of an environment in which reading and education were not always encouraged by the adults. They also loved playing softball, baseball, and basketball just for fun.

Hal became interested in attending college even though no one in the family before him had done so and neither parent graduated from high school. A basketball scholarship from legendary coach Tom Blackburn at the University of Dayton provided the financial means.

After a challenging freshman adjustment and warming the bench as a sophomore, Hal was a starting forward on the 1962 National Invitation Tournament championship team. The NIT was then a prestigious national tournament played entirely in New York's Madison Square Garden.

As chronicled in the book’s “Afterward,” Hal went on to a 34-year career as a Professor of Mathematics Education mainly at the University of Iowa, and two of his younger brothers earned doctorates in Mathematics.

Rick Schoen is internationally renowned for his ground-breaking research work in Differential Geometry. In 2017, he was awarded the prestigious Wolf Prize in Mathematics. Hal’s other siblings also did well in both their professional and personal lives.

The Schoen family story is one of rising economically and educationally from humble beginnings, the American Dream.

222 pages, Paperback

Published June 3, 2016

About the author

Harold (Hal) Schoen grew up with 12 siblings on a small farm in west-central Ohio in the 1940s and ‘50s. Thanks to a basketball scholarship to the University of Dayton, he became the first in his extended family to earn a college degree. Upon completing the necessary graduate education, he spent 34 years as a jointly appointed Professor of Mathematics and Education. He is author of high school and beginning college mathematics textbooks, the Iowa Algebra Aptitude Test, and many professional papers. Growing Up is his first attempt at writing for a more general audience.

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoughts soon.

[Jack Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. My parents are about the same age as Harold and I am about the same age as his kids. I grew up in Kentucky and my parents grew up on a farm. His childhood seems very similar to my parents. The story affected me in three ways. First the nostalgia of small town life is so American and it is something that is being lost in our country on a daily basis. Second you really get a feel of how good we have it these day. Don’t listen to any of these stupid media types that try to convince you that the standard of living in the US is not improving. Read this book for proof. Third I love basketball especially UK and Georgia Tech and to see his story at UD and how much the sport has changed is really incredible. Thanks for sharing your story with the public Harold and be proud of a life well lived and a beautiful family.