Jon Mark Beilue: Fourteen, no, 15, presidents

Eric Corbin has rare document — and a rare letter of reprieve

*Photo: An aerial view of WT in 1943 in a photo taken by Richard Corbyn. Some of the WT campus was used to train pilots during portions of World War II.

Hanging on the walls that border the sweaters, button-downs and slacks at Corbyn’s Clothiers in Amarillo is a piece of local and national history.

A unique aerial view of West Texas State in 1943? It’s there.

A Winston Churchill letter turning down Eric Corbyn’s father’s request to join the British Army in 1939? It’s there.

Autographed framed photos of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Hollywood’s Mae West, James Stewart, Clint Eastwood, and John Wayne? There, there, there, there and there.

A framed letter dated 1963 from Kohei Hanami, commander of a Japanese destroyer that sunk John Kennedy’s PT-109 boat? It’s on the back wall.

The whimsical book, “Palo Duro,” of warring fraternities which Corbyn authored 10 years ago loosely based on the nine years he spent at WT? There’s one under the counter for anyone interested.

But all of that pales in comparison to the cherry on top of the collectible sundae, one that’s in the Guinness Book of World Records, one so valuable there’s only a framed replica on the back wall while the real document resides in a bank’s safe deposit box.

It’s a letter dated from October 1932 from Franklin Roosevelt who was just a few weeks from winning the first of four presidential elections. He’s written to Richard Corbyn, Eric’s father, who at age 18 had previously written to Roosevelt, asking if it were true that he would be campaigning near Williams, Ariz., where he was staying at the time.

It’s a three-paragraph personal letter that begins with “My Dear Richard,” and ends with “Very sincerely yours,” with the very real signature of one Franklin D. Roosevelt.

That letter is now extremely valuable not just because of Roosevelt’s signature on stationary, but what’s on the paper that surrounds those three paragraphs.

Fourteen presidential autographs – every president except one for the last 92 years, dating back to 1928.  No document has been so thoroughly presidentially adorned. Guinness Book of World Records says so.

After receiving that letter, the elder Corbyn was busy with other things for about 30 years. During the heart of World War II, he helped train cadets to fly with the Army’s 350^th CTD training program in 1943. WT became a part-time flight school.

“They about took over the campus for training,” Corbyn said. “I don’t think the professors were very happy.”

On one training run, Corbyn snapped a one-of-a-kind photo of the WT campus from the south looking north. There’s Old Main prominently in the middle, the football field and bleachers not far to the northwest, and a lot of empty land looking north to Amarillo.

Fourteen presidential signatures  

 After his time as a Major in the Korean War, Richard Corbyn got the idea that letter would be more valuable with more presidential signatures. He mailed the document to Dwight Eisenhower in 1962 and he signed. He got three in 1963 – Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Herbert Hoover, who signed one year before his death.

“That was pretty nice of Hoover to do that,” Eric said, “because he hated Roosevelt.”

It was 12 years later until the next one, Gerald Ford. Jimmy Carter signed as president-elect in 1976. Richard Nixon signed in 1978. Ronald Reagan signed as president-elect in 1980.

Corbyn, whose dad died in 2014 at age 99, took over the autograph pursuit with George Bush in 1988. It’s been by hook and crook to get the 14 signatures. The only one missing is John Kennedy, whose 1963 assassination stopped that request.

Corbyn has a letter for a legislative aide for Bill Clinton, noting he signed the document in 1993 while flying on Air Force One to Portland, Ore. It took about seven years to get both Bushes. Using the connections of Congressman Mac Thornberry and Josh Martin, his chief of staff, Corbyn got Barack Obama’s after seven years of effort.

That left one – Donald Trump.

Martin called Corbyn this past summer and told him to be at the White House last July 15. He and two store employees flew to Washington, and got a Secret Service clearance the day before. They were in a White House hallway while Trump spoke in the Rose Garden. Corbyn gave the document to a special assistant for legislative affairs.

After it was over, Corbyn ducked out of the way as a military guard went down the hallway. Alas, Trump went the other way but the three did mingle for a while in the Rose Garden.

“The document was up there through December and I was worried it would get lost,” Corbyn said.

But a friend knew Dr. Ronny Jackson, in a runoff for Thornberry’s seat and the former physician for both Obama and Trump. Jackson said he would see what he could do. He made a couple of phone calls and got Trump’s illegible signature on the document on Jan. 27.  Jackson carried the document with signature No. 14 into the store in March.

*Photo: Eric Corbyn, owner of Corbyn's Clothiers, shows a replica of a rare president document. It's the signature of 14 U.S. presidents, all but one since 1928, that his father started and he took over more than 30 years ago.

Double secret probation

Corbyn also has another framed autograph and letter of a different president in the store. It was in 1971 from WT president Dr. James Cornette to Dr. Donald Cates, Dean of Admission: “This is to authorize that Eric Allan Corbyn be allowed to register for the current semester on probation, with the understanding that if anything that will make suspension from the University necessary the suspension will be of a permanent nature.”

Corbyn, from Fort Worth, said he should have majored in journalism. Instead, he majored in A Good Time and minored in pre-med, or maybe the other way around. He started WT in 1964, pledged Kappa Alpha in 1966, which led to sinking grades, which led to being drafted in the Army.

Corbyn somehow avoided Vietnam, and was discharged in 1970. He returned to WT, and made 10 Bs over the next two semesters. The summer session of 1971 he signed up on the GI Bill. He forgot to go to class, and also forgot the drop deadline. He got an F.

He was on suspension. No problem, he thought. Academic suspension was a semester, which was the second summer session. He’d enroll in the fall 1971. Only thing it was now a three-semester suspension, which Corbyn rudely discovered when he tried to register.

“You need to talk to the gentleman over there,” Corbyn said he was told. “This gentleman looked like he was 20 years old. He said, ‘No, three semesters. See you in a year-and-a-half.’ I pointed my finger at his nose and said, ‘You just watch and see, buddy.’”

A friend was watching the whole thing and told Corbyn he just pointed his finger at Dr. Donald Cates, dean of Admissions.

Corbyn, in a three-piece suit and a haircut, later pleaded his case in Cates’ office. Now humbled, Corbyn told him about the 10 Bs and stretched things when he said he missed the drop date because he had to work for a sick employee, that he’d been on the front lines in Vietnam, earned a Purple Heart, and please let me back in.

“Cates took a drag on his cigarette,” Corbyn said, “and said, ‘See you in three semesters.’”

Corbyn pleaded his case up the chain to Cornette, who wasn’t going to overrule Cates. He told his dad it was over, but Richard Corbyn played one final card with the WT president. While Eric was in Cates office one last time, his father spoke with Cornette.

He told him he was a military man with connections to the veterans administration. Through his son, he’d heard how lax the school was with the GI Bill, particularly in checking attendance as well as some other issues. It would be a shame to have an investigation.

“I’m sitting in Dr. Cates office and his phone rings and it’s Dr. Cornette,” Corbyn said. “Dr. Cates goes, ‘What? What? OK,’ and hangs up. I got back in on double secret probation.”

And later Cates gave him the letter from Cornette that made it official. It’s not a presidential document, but it’s not bad.

Do you know of a student, faculty member, project, an alumnus or any other story idea for “WT: The Heart and Soul of the Texas Panhandle?” If so, email Jon Mark Beilue at jbeilue@wtamu.edu.