Ottawa High School will bestow it’s greatest honor to three alumni this week. The first is Homer Kissinger, class of 1940. Homer was an honor graduate at OHS. Those were war years; Homer enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942, he spent six months as an aircraft radio mechanic before being selected for specialized training at Louisiana State University.
Sent to Europe in 1944, Homer fought in most of the major actions to end the war against Germany. Homer was a decorated veteran, receiving the bronze star with V for Valor and awarded the Purple Heart for injuries obtained during the Battle of Ruhr Pocket; honorably discharged in January 1946.
He studied physics and mathematics at Kansas State and began his career at the National Bureau of standards, working on a wide variety of topics, including differential thermal analysis. In 1957 he published what is known as the Kissinger equation, offering a more complete analysis and is still used worldwide today.
The Wall of Honor Banquet will be held tomorrow evening at Ottawa High. All three inductees will be recognized at halftime of the OHS football game Friday night.
