Dick Smothers

His father, Major Thomas Bolyn Smothers Jr., was a West Point graduate who was a POW in World War II and was thought to have died during the infamous Bataan Death march. In fact, he survived that experience but died later on a Japanese POW ship. He was buried at sea.

"There's a dumbing down of the schools. It's all around." (Chicago Tribune interview, November 28, 2002)