William Morris Hoge was born in Boonville, Mo., in January 1894 on the campus of the Kemper Military School, where his father served as principal. He was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1912, graduated in 1916 and was commissioned into the Army Corps of Engineers.

During World War I, Hoge was assigned to the 7th Engineer Regiment and deployed to France. In late 1918, as a battalion commander during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, he led troops in a 20-hour battle while working to bridge the Meuse River. He returned to the U.S. in 1919 and pursued education, training and civil works assignments, receiving a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1922.

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