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torpedoing of the Lusitania. And he became more and more pro-allied and more and more convinced that the United States would have to get into this war, World War I. He was particularly horrified by the German barbarities and the German position in World War One.

I think there may have been more to that, however, in prompting his change of name. It was to change from a German sounding name -- O-c-h-s -- to an English-sounding, American-sounding name. He always referred to it as “anglicizing” the name to O-a-k-e-s. I think -- and here I have absolutely no hard evidence -- part of the undercurrent that was never mentioned as far as I know, ever, was that he also probably wanted to get out from under the domination of Adolph Ochs whom he was very close to but who was the very strongly controlling influence in the whole family's life. Not only at this time -- we're talking about 1915 or '16 -- but right from the start, really. And while the brothers had great and genuine affection for each other, I'm convinced that my father kind of chafed at the idea of Adolph being totally dominant in the family. I think this could well have been part of the reason, although this was never, as far as I know, ever mentioned by anybody in the family. I was very, very little at the time and I don't remember any mention of this. Obviously the subject of change of name came up in later years, but always in the “anglicization” context.

So what he did was petition the Philadelphia court in 1917 to change the name of his two young sons, very young, at that time, from Ochs, O-c-h-s, to the anglicized version, Oakes, O-a-k-e-s. So my name and my brother's name were actually changed by court decree.