Bill Lear - Early Life

Early Life

Lear was born on June 26, 1902 in Hannibal, Missouri to Ruben Marion Lear and Gertrude Elizabeth Powell Lear. Ruben was a man who had "success in inverse proportion to effort", so Lear's mother left him; mother and son stayed with aunt Gussie Bornhouser in Dubuque, Iowa. Later Otto Kirmse took them in and was a step-father to Bill Lear. The family relocated to Chicago where Lear attended Kershaw Grammar School. On Sundays, young Lear attended the Moody Bible Institute. "From listening to Paul Rader, of the Moody Tabernacle, he learned grammar and how to speak. He found out how to meet people, how to shake hands, and what to say when he did so... He learned about hypocrisy, too" and ceased any further church affiliation.

Lear entered Englewood High School but was dismissed for showing up teachers. He worked for the Multigraph Company, running and repairing rotary typesetting and printing machines. One summer he spent with his father in Tulsa, re-building a Model-T car. Too independent to move back with his mother in Chicago, Lear struck out cross country. He joined the U.S. Navy and was sent to Great Lakes Naval Training Station. Later after discharge, and with a young family, "he decided to complete his high school education. Starting a radio repair shop in his home, which he could tend nights, Lear enrolled at Tulsa Central High School, taking eight solids, heavy on the math. He was at the point of wrapping up the entire four-year curriculum in one when he ."