Laurens Corning Shull was born on 17 January, 1894, the son of Deloss C. Shull. He graduated from high school in 1909 in his home town of Sioux City, Iowa. A versatile athlete, he was captain of both the football and basketball teams. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1916 and worked for a year at the Farmers Bank of Woodward, Iowa. On May 15, 1917, he resigned his position in the bank and entered the First Officers' Training Camp, at Fort Snelling, near Minneapolis, Minnesota. At the end of the training he was commissioned a second Lieutenant in the Infantry Reserve Corps and deployed to France. He was assigned to the Twenty-sixth Infantry, Company F, First Division, in December, when that division was occupying a portion of the line in the Toul sector. Company F was in the battalion commanded by Major Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. He was later transferred to Company G, of the same regiment. He was commanding the company when he was fatally wounded on July 19, 1918, at Soissons, in the Chateau Thierry drive. He died in the American Red Cross Hospital #1 in Nuielly sur Seine, near Paris. For his heroic action in leading his men against a German machine-gun nest on that day he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He is buried in the Graceland Park Cemetery in Sioux City. VFW Post 580 in Sioux City is named after him. From: IOWA--ITS HISTORY AND TRADITION, VOLUME III, 1804-1926, L. C. SHULL