Otto Carpell

Otto Carpell

Carpell cropped from 1912 Michigan team photograph
Date of birth:	November 12, 1889
Place of birth:	Saginaw, Michigan
Date of death:	October 11, 1918 (age 28)
Place of death:	West Point, Mississippi
Career information
Position(s):	Halfback
College:	Michigan
Organizations
As player:
1909–1912	Michigan

Otto Christ Carpell (November 12, 1889 – October 11, 1918) was an American football player for the University of Michigan. He played halfback for the Michigan Wolverines football team from 1909 to 1912. He became an aviation combat pilot during World War I and was one of four Michigan football players to be killed in the war.

Carpell was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1889, the son of Maximillian A. and Elizabeth (Heydrich) Carpell.^[1]

Carpell enrolled at the University of Michigan and played for the Michigan Wolverines football team from 1909 to 1912 under head coach Fielding H. Yost.

After graduating from Michigan, Carpell went into the real estate brokerage business in Detroit with an office in the Penobscot Building.

Following the United States entry into World War I, Carpell was inducted into the U.S. Army on December 1, 1917. He was assigned to the Pilot Aviation Section and transferred to Berkeley, California, and then Dallas, Texas for training. Carpell attained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, Aviation Section, Signal Corps, US Army, and received his commission as aviation combat pilot following his graduation from the School of Military Aeronautics at Columbus, Ohio. On January 1, 1918, he announced his engagement to Beatrice Merriam of Detroit. In October 1918, he died of a cause variously reported as heart failure or pneumonia following an outbreak of Spanish influenza while serving at Payne Field in West Point, Mississippi.^[2][3] He was one of three former Michigan Wolverines football players to be killed while serving in World War I. The other two were Curtis Redden, and Efton James. In November 1921, a bronze memorial tablet was unveiled at Michigan's football stadium to honor the four Michigan football players killed in the war.^[4]

References

1. ^ "Michigan's Gold Star Record: World War I". Michigan History Magazine, Volume 29. 1945. p. 281. 
2. ^ "Last Rites for Otto C. Carpell: Former Michigan Football Star Will Be Buried From His Late Saginaw Home Tuesday Morning". Detroit Free Press. October 15, 1918. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/freep/access/1782264842.html?FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Oct+15,+1918&author=&pub=Detroit+Free+Press+(1858-1922)&desc=Owosso+Sailor+Gridiron+Victim.&pqatl=google. 
3. ^ George Newman Fuller, Lewis Beeson (1922). "Historical News, Notes and Comment". Michigan History Magazine, Volume 6, No. 1. p. 18. http://books.google.com/books?id=gCDiAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
4. ^ "In Honor of Michigan's 'M' Men Who Died In The War". The Michigan Alumnus: p. 200. November 1921. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZR9YAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. (a fourth Michigan letterman, Howard R. Smith, was also killed in the war, but he was not a varsity football player.

Persondata
Name	Carpell, Otto C.
Alternative names
Short description	Football player and pilot
Date of birth	November 12, 1889
Place of birth	Saginaw, Michigan
Date of death	October 11, 1918
Place of death	West Point, Mississippi