Running with my Angel by George O. Hallman, Ph.D, describes from memory and in unusual detail what it was like to grow up as a member of the Silent Generation (1925-45) and how a tragic accident on a U.S. Air Force Base in Korea led to the loss of his sight and the gain of his cherished wife, Eileen. The motive for the book, he said, is to praise her—his angel, his love, his sweetheart, his best friend, his everything, and other terms of endearment and affection. 

“I feel confident that many other husbands have been similarly blessed and can make comparable statements about their wives,” he said. “May it be so!”

Upon graduation from high school, George Hallman signed a professional baseball contract and played one season. He then became an airman. While serving in Korea and at age 19, he was involved in an explosion that left him permanently and totally blind.

During a nearly two-year recovery at Hines VA Hospital and a brief period of training at the Hines Blind Rehabilitation Center, he met Eileen. Upon his discharge from Hines, the two were married. Soon after, George began college and graduated from the University of South Carolina, attended graduate school at North Carolina State College. He then finished a doctoral program at the University of Georgia and taught at the college and university level for 38 years. He also worked in the athletic department of the University of South Carolina for ten years.

“During all my years of education, my wife was my primary reader and assisted me in virtually all areas of my education, including the collection of data for my doctoral dissertation,” he said. “She was also the mother of our two sons and, together, we ran marathons and ultra marathons in America and other countries.”

A member of the BVA Carolina Regional Group and a resident of West Columbia, South Carolina, George began writing Running with my Angel, his first book, just two months short of his 85th birthday. The book is available on the Kindle mobile application and Amazon here.