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• School of Law

LAWRENCE — When German soldiers swarmed Francis Heller’s native Austria in 1938, the young officer candidate knew he was in grave danger.

He had made no secret of his support for Austrian independence, and swearing an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler would do little to disguise his distaste for the dictator’s agenda. So he refused, risking retaliation as an enemy of the Nazis, and escaped his collapsing homeland under cover of darkness.

Heller subsequently made his way to America, where he finally pursued the academic career that military service had interrupted. He served twice as provost of the University of Kansas and retired as a distinguished professor at the KU School of Law — but not before a harrowing career as a combat soldier in the U.S. Army.

He chronicles his alternating experiences as soldier and academic in a new book, “Steel Helmet and Mortarboard: An Academic in Uncle Sam’s Army” (University of Missouri Press). Heller will give a talk and sign copies of his book from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21, at the Dole Institute of Politics, 2350 Petefish Drive. The event is co-sponsored by the Dole Institute, the law school and Oread Books. A reception will follow.

As a new immigrant, Heller learned English by spending afternoons and evenings in a New York movie theater, viewing each film three times. He earned a law degree at the University of Virginia and had started a doctorate in political science when he was drafted. That was 1942.

Now in his 90s, Heller looks back on his experiences with a matter-of-fact sensibility.

“I had no choice,” he said. “The American Selective Service System was set up that if you pleaded foreign nationality they didn’t draft you, but they also barred you forever from becoming a citizen of the United States. That wasn’t a choice for me anymore. I had made up my mind that I wasn’t going to go back to Europe; I was going to be an American.”

Heller was stationed throughout the Pacific: Hawaii, Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines and Japan. His account of those years recalls how an upper-middle-class émigré adjusted to digging ditches, peeling potatoes, completing jungle survival training and, later, engaging in front-line combat. In a particularly intense passage of the book, Heller describes a face-to-face encounter with two Japanese soldiers, who charged him in the wooded foothills of a New Guinean mountain range.

“I fell down exhausted. … I was breathing heavily, and my hands were shaking,” he wrote. “It ran through my mind that I had killed two human beings.”

The Army later awarded Heller the Silver Star, and he eventually rose to the rank of first lieutenant.

Upon his return to the states, Heller finished his doctorate and took a job as assistant professor of political science at KU. He married, enlisted in the Army Reserve and was called back to active duty during the Korean War. He also served in later years with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.

He turned from university administration to full-time teaching in 1972, when he was named the Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Law and Political Science. Officially retired since 1988, Heller continued to teach at the law school until 2003. He is the author or editor of 17 books and nearly 200 articles and book reviews. He assisted President Harry S. Truman with the preparation of his memoirs and served for more than 30 years as vice president of the Harry S. Truman Library Institute.

Heller received the Institute of International Education/Reader's Digest Award for Outstanding Contributions to International Education and the Chancellors Club Career Teaching Award. He was the eighth non-alumnus faculty member to receive the Distinguished Service Citation from KU and its alumni association.

In 2004, Austria awarded Heller the Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class. It is among the highest academic awards given by the Austrian government and must be approved by Parliament.