Scroll of Honor – Henry Edward Cochran
High Esteem
Written by: Kelly Durham
Henry Edward Cochran of Donalds was held in high regard by his fellow members of the Class of 1937. They elected him class president as a freshman and vice president as a sophomore. As a senior, by which time they had come to know Cochran quite well, class members expressed their confidence by electing him to the Senior Disciplinary Council. The vote was by secret ballot, making Cochran’s election a true reflection of the esteem in which he was held. The Council served as the liaison between Clemson’s administration and its student body, seeking, according to Taps, to “find a smoothing remedy for all problems which might present themselves in the regular operation of a school year.”
Cochran was selected as the best drilled sophomore and was so consistently excellent that he was chosen for the Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior platoons, consisting of the best drilled cadets in each of his four years on campus. He was a member of Alpha Tau Alpha, the honorary agricultural education fraternity, the First Sergeants’ Club, and Scabbard and Blade, the military honor society.
After graduation, Cochran took a job as the agriculture teacher at Greeleyville High School. He married the former Margaret Parler of Beaufort and they had a daughter, Margaret Ann. Cochran was called to active duty in May 1942.
Cochran was assigned to the 406th Infantry Regiment of the 102nd Infantry Division organized that September at Camp Maxey in northeast Texas. After two years of stateside training, the 102nd deployed overseas arriving at Cherbourg, France in September 1944.
The 102nd received additional training in France and then moved to the Dutch-German border in October. In late November, the division attacked in strength toward the Roer River, reaching Welz, Flossdorf, and Linnich. The division found itself to the north of the Battle of the Bulge and held the northern shoulder of the penetration while allowing other Allied units to move south to help blunt the German offensive.
On February 23, 1945, the 102nd resumed offensive operations by attacking across the Roer. In fighting near Krefeld, First Lieutenant Cochran was killed on March 2. The following day, his division reached the Rhine River.
First Lieutenant Cochran was awarded the Purple Heart. He was survived by his wife and daughter, his mother, and four brothers, two of whom were then serving in the Army in France. After the war Cochran’s remains were returned to South Carolina and buried in the Turkey Creek Baptist Church Cemetery in Ware Shoals.
For more information about Henry Edward Cochran see: 
https://soh.alumni.clemson.edu/scroll/henry-edward-cochran/
For additional information about Clemson University’s Scroll of Honor visit:
https://soh.alumni.clemson.edu/