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There was a good deal of that going on at the time, of people anglicizing their German names, especially following the U.S. declaration of war vs. Germany in the spring of 1917.

Do you have any direct knowledge of what Adolph Ochs's response was to that?

I'm quite sure that my uncle didn't like it -- although I can't find any letters or anything from him on that subject. I remember reading at least one letter from another member of the family, very strongly opposing this idea.

Who was that?

As I recall it was an uncle by marriage, Harry Adler, the husband of my father's sister Ada. That is my recollection, the husband of one of the sisters of Adolph, a Chattanooga sister. I am quite sure that nobody in the family thought the change of name was a great idea, but I don't know of any really severe family rift. But I'm certain that that was not thought to be a good idea by most, if not all of the Ochs family.

And in fact, my father had enough respect or feeling for the Ochs name that -- unlike in the case of the two sons, little sons, he always said he didn't want his children to grow up with a German name -- he didn't abolish his name, O-c-h-s. He simply added the name O-a-k-e-s to it. And for the rest of his life he was known as George W. Ochs Oakes. Although my brother and I became, from this time on, Oakes. O-a-k-e-s.