William R. Gruber

William R. Gruber, a Brigadier General (USA, ret.), was an instructor at the Army Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth when Dwight D. Eisenhower was a student there. Following Eisenhower's graduation, Gruber and his wife Helen were joined by Dwight D. and Mamie Eisenhower on a 17-day, 1800 mile motor trip through Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and France in 1929.

They left Paris on August 28, 1929, and drove to Brussels, Belgium. Their route then took them to Bonn, Germany, south along the Rhine River to Coblenz, Heidelberg and through the Back Forest. They then went to Switzerland, spending seven days and visiting Zürich, Lucerne, Interlaken, Montreux, and Geneva, and surviving a harrowing crossing of the Furka Pass high in the Alps. From Switzerland the travelers went to Besançon, then to Romagne in France. While the ladies stayed there to visit with a mutual friend, Gruber and Eisenhower toured the World War I battlefields in the area. Eisenhower was an expert guide having just completed work on a guidebook for the Battle Monuments Commission. The Grubers and Eisenhowers returned to Paris on September 13.