EISENHOWER: A FACTUAL SKETCH

Some highlights from the life and works of Dwight David Eisenhower, General of the Army, Supreme Commander of NATO's armed forces and a leading prospect for the Republican presidential nomination:

Ancestry: of German Mennonite stock; on the paternal side, the first Eisenhowers (who spelled it "Eisenhauer") settled in Pennsylvania between 1730 and 1740; the general's grandfather, Jacob Eisenhower, a leader of the River Brethren sect of Mennonites, moved his family to Kansas in 1878. On the maternal side, the general's forebears (named Stover or Stoewer) were also German immigrants who prospered in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley until the Civil War brought hardship and destruction.

Born: Oct. 14, 1890, at Denison, Texas. His parents, David Jacob and Ida Elizabeth, had met at Lane University, a United Brethren school in Lecompton, Kans.; after failing in a general-store business at Hope, Kans., father David moved his family briefly to Texas, where he worked as a railroad hand, but soon returned to Kansas.

Boyhood: spent at Abilene, in a frame house with three acres. Family circumstances: poor and puritanical. Ike once had to wear his mother's high-button shoes to school. Father David, who eked out a living as a mechanic in a Brethren-operated creamery, gave much attention to Bible reading. Mother Ida, a strong personality and lifelong pacifist who eventually joined Jehovah's Witnesses, held the household together. There were seven children, all sons, of whom four besides the general are still alive—Arthur B., 65, a Kansas City banker; Edgar N., 63, a Tacoma (Wash.) attorney; Earl D., 54, a Charleroi (Pa.) engineer; Milton, 52, president of Pennsylvania State College.

West Point: class of 1915; better than average in scholarship, ranking 61st in a graduating group of 164; worse than average in conduct, ranking 95th among the 164. A good halfback, Cadet Ike badly wrenched his knee in a rough game with the Carlisle Indians, whose star was the great Jim Thorpe; in a subsequent game he broke the knee, then injured it further in the riding hall and had to quit football for good. Among Ike's classmates were Omar Bradley (who stood sixth in conduct), James Van Fleet, the late Vernon Prichard (a top West Point football star), Joseph T. McNarney, George Stratemeyer.

Early Career: during World War I, served at Army training posts, rising to lieut. colonel (temporary) in the tank corps; during the 19203, after reverting to his permanent rank of captain, he gradually rose to major; was No. i man in his class (1926) at the Fort Leavenworth Command & General Staff School; in 1932 stood by Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur during Washington's famed bonus march; in 1933 became MacArthur's aide; from 1935 to late 1939 served as MacArthur's right hand in the Philippines; learned also to fly a plane (300 air hours); distinguished himself in the 1941 Louisiana maneuvers as chief of staff to Lieut. General Walter Kreuger.