L. Welch Pogue - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Pogue was born in Grant, Iowa on October 21, 1899, the son of Leander Welch Pogue and Myrtle Viola Casey. His mother home-schooled him after chores, and he began traditional schooling in eighth grade. He graduated from Red Oak High School in Red Oak, Iowa in 1917. He attended Grinnell College and enlisted there in the Student Army Training Corps of the U.S. Army before transferring to the University of Nebraska, where he became president of the student body. After returning to work on the family farm for a while, Pogue received his B.A. from the University of Nebraska in 1924, and his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1926. Later, Pogue received his Doctor of Juridical Science (D.J.S.) from Harvard Law School.

At Harvard Law School, noted law Professor and later United States Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter took Pogue in as a protégé. As a lawyer, Pogue was entranced by Charles Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight and decided to focus his law career mainly on the "skies".