@Joseph He wasn’t a Rov himself, but he was from a Rabbonish European family. And even though he never really had the opportunity to learn in Yeshiva due to the Wars, he found people to teach him Torah and he himself was a massive Talmid Chacham who married a bas Talmid Chacham and, despite coming the the US with nearly nothing, raised his children in a Shomer Torah U’Mitzvos home where they grew up, went to Yeshiva, and became Talmidei Chachamim in their own right.
I think he just found it easier to eat with a straw.