 In 1940, Ashmore married Barbara Edith Laier, a physical education teacher at Furman University.Ashmore was accepted for a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 1941.When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, Ashmore left Harvard to join the United States Army, and served as an operations officer (reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel) with the Ninety-fifth Infantry Division, part of the United States Third Army.