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Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Nugent Courvoisie (October 16, 1916 – April 30, 2006) was a United States Army Officer and Assistant Commandant of Cadets at The Citadel who was the subject of The Boo, the first book authored by famed novelist Pat Conroy and the inspiration for “The Bear” in Conroy's novel The Lords of Discipline. [1] [2]
- Overview
- Biography
- Death
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Nugent Courvoisie (October 16, 1916 – April 30, 2006) was a United States Army Officer and Assistant Commandant of Cadets at The Citadel who was the subject of The Boo, the first book authored by famed novelist Pat Conroy and the inspiration for “The Bear” in Conroys novel The Lords of Discipline.
Born in Savannah, Georgia he attended Benedictine Military School then entered The Citadel in 1934; health problems forced him to withdraw 2 years later after which time he served as a crew member on a freighter then later joining the Georgia National Guard and seeing combat in a field artillery unit during The Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Returning to The Citadel in 1950 as a veteran student while serving as an instructor with the South Carolina National Guard he graduated in 1952 and was commissioned into the U.S. Army serving in the Korean War, in 1959 he was assigned to The Citadel as an Assistant Professor of Military Science and after retiring from the military in 1961 he was appointed Assistant Commandant of Cadets for Discipline.
Courvoisie became a feared but respected figure and gained a reputation as a stern disciplinarian, his nickname “The Boo” came about when cadets described his hulking figure as ‘looking like a caribou’ and then shortened the description, he famously referred to his charges as “Lambs” and addressed them as “Bubba” or “Bum”. Despite his gruff exterior and demanding personality he could also be compassionate, bailing cadets out of jail or even paying for their class rings; he also worked behind the scenes to help smooth integration when the first black cadet matriculated in 1966. Pushed out in a political struggle with the administration in 1968 he was reassigned as warehouse supervisor and retired from the college in 1982.
He died of natural causes in 2006 at the age of 89 and is interred at the Beaufort National Cemetery. His first wife Elizabeth Genevieve Cosner, an Army Nurse whom he met during his military service, died in 1985; he was survived by third wife Helen Shanley and a daughter Dr. Helen Courvoisie of Baltimore, Maryland. His son Alfred (1947-2009) was a...
Apr 30, 2006 · Thomas Nugent Courvoisie, Lt Col, USA (Ret) inspired two Pat Conroy books and five decades of Citadel cadets. And he was, above all else, The Boo. The Citadel family has lost its patriarch, said Maj. Gen. John S. Grinalds, past president of the college.
Colonel Thomas Nugent Courvoisie, known by most as "The Boo," died Sunday, April 30, 2006, at Cooper Hall Assisted Living Center, where he resided. He was 89. The Citadel family has lost one of its great icons.
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Nugent Courvoisie was a United States Army Officer and Assistant Commandant of Cadets at The Citadel who was the subject of The Boo, the first book authored by famed novelist Pat Conroy and the inspiration for “The Bear” in Conroy's novel The Lords of Discipline.
The Boo was the first book by writer Pat Conroy. [1] Written when Conroy was newly graduated (1967) from The Citadel in 1970, it is a collection of letters, short stories, and anecdotes about Lt. Colonel Thomas "The Boo" Courvoisie. As Commandant of Cadets at the Citadel. [2]
Nov 6, 2012 · Author and 1967 Citadel grad Pat Conroy. Today we gather together, in great joy and sorrow, to bid farewell to one of the most famous Citadel graduates who ever lived, Col. Thomas Nugent Courvoisie whose last name was a French cognac, but who claimed his whole life he was pure Irish.
