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Dean Rockwell
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Dean Rockwell (1912 in Cass County, Michigan – August 8, 2005) was a World War II hero at the D-Day invasion of Normandy, an Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling coach, and a college football coach.
After graduating from Eastern Michigan University (then called Michigan State Normal College) in 1935, Rockwell taught and coached track, wrestling and football at several Michigan high schools. He also was an auto worker and took part in the Flint Sit-Down Strike in 1936-1937.
On May 17, 1942, Rockwell enlisted in the US Navy, where he became a group commander of 12 LCT’s during the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
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Encyclopedia
Dean Rockwell (1912 in Cass County, Michigan – August 8, 2005) was a World War II hero at the D-Day invasion of Normandy, an Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling coach, and a college football coach.
After graduating from Eastern Michigan University (then called Michigan State Normal College) in 1935, Rockwell taught and coached track, wrestling and football at several Michigan high schools. He also was an auto worker and took part in the Flint Sit-Down Strike in 1936-1937.
On May 17, 1942, Rockwell enlisted in the US Navy, where he became a group commander of 12 LCT’s during the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Rockwell received both the Navy Cross and the French Croix de Guerre avec Paume for his heroic decision to break radio silence when faced with what he recognized as a certain disaster. Instead, Rockwell radioed an Army captain which allowed important last-minute changes that aided in the success of the attack and saved thousands of lives. So crucial was Rockwell’s decision that, a half a century later, at the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994, Rockwell was given the honor of introducing then-President Bill Clinton.
After the war, Rockwell studied at the graduate level at the University of Michigan. He went on to coach football at Albion College.
Rockwell also coached at the national and international levels, chairing the US National AAU Wrestling Committee from 1966-1968, serving on three Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling committees, and coaching the US Greco-Roman wrestling team at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
In May 1995, Rockwell received the "Master of Wrestling Award" from Wrestling USA magazine. In 2000, the nation's largest wrestling library, the new AAU National Wrestling Hall of Fame, was named the "Dean Rockwell Library and Research Center." In January 2007, Eastern Michigan University named a gymnasium in his honor as the "Dean L. Rockwell Wrestling Facility."
Rockwell died August 8, 2005 at the age of 93.
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