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     Lynde Dupuy McCormick was born on 12 August 1895 in Annapolis, Anne Arundel Co., Maryland.^2,1 He married Lillian Addison Sprigg, daughter of Patterson Sprigg and Lillian M. Cullen, on 2 October 1920 at the Mission Inn in Riverside, Riverside Co., California.^3,4 He died from a heart attack on 16 August 1956 at the Naval Hospital in Newport, Newport Co., Rhode Island, at age 61.^2,5 His funeral was held 20 August 1956 at the U. S. Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis, with burial at a later date at the U. S. Naval Academy Cemetery.^6,7
     His wife Lillian was the widow of Ivan Montrose Graham, his best friend at the Naval Academy, who died during the 1918 influenza epidemic leaving a four-month-old son, Ivan Jr. After their marriage he formally adopted Ivan Jr., whose name was changed to Montrose Graham McCormick.⁸
     Lynde attended St. John's Preparatory School and College, which was then a military school in Annapolis, Anne Arundel Co., Maryland,¹ until 1911, when he was appointed by President Taft to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.² While at the Academy he played soccer and lacrosse, and was business manager of the yearbook Lucky Bag.⁹ He graduated second in his class of 183 in 1915, and was commissioned as an ensign.^2,1 He was first assigned to the battleship USS Wyoming, where he served during World War I as part of the British Grand Fleet, and was present when the German High Seas Fleet surrendered at the end of the war.¹
     In the 1920 census he is listed as a lieutenant on board the USS Melville, stationed in San Diego, San Diego Co., California.¹⁰ He and his wife Lillian and their children are listed in Coronado, San Diego Co., California, in the 1930 census¹¹, and in Long Beach, Los Angeles Co., California, in the 1940 census.¹²
     In the years between the Armistice ending World War I in 1918 and the onset of World War II in 1941, he served in various positions on several different battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, including as a division or squadron command staff aide, as a navigator, as a commander, and as a Battle Force operations officer. During this period he was also at various times an instructor and administrator at the Naval Academy, a student at the Navy's Submarine School, and a student and staff member at the Naval War College.¹
     When the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor in December 1941 he was serving as assistant war plans officer on the Pacific Fleet staff. In April 1942 he was named war plans officer under Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, where he served during the battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal.¹ He was promoted to rear admiral on 15 July 1942.⁹
     He commanded the battleship South Dakota from February 1943 to the fall of 1943, then served as assistant chief of naval operations for logistics, and as chairman of the Joint Logistics Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff until March 1945. He next commanded Battleship Division 3 in the Pacific, and was task group commander at the Battle of Okinawa.
     Immediately after the war he was on duty for a time during the occupation of Japan. In November 1945 he was appointed chief of staff and aide to the Pacific Fleet commander in chief, and as deputy commander in chief a month later. In February 1946 he was promoted to the temporary rank of vice admiral. From February 1947 to November 1948 he served as commander of battleships and cruisers, Atlantic Fleet, then became commander of the Twelfth Naval District in San Francisco, reverting to his permanent rank of rear admiral.¹
     In November 1949 he became vice chief of Naval Operations in Washington, D.C.¹, and was again promoted to vice admiral on 3 April 1950. He was nominated by President Truman as a full admiral on 20 December, and confirmed two days later.⁹
     In August 1951 he was appointed commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet, and five months later, in January 1952, he was named as the first supreme Allied commander, Atlantic, in charge of all NATO naval forces.¹ It was reported in the New York Times that his was the largest command for a single naval officer since Columbus was named "Grand Admiral of the Ocean Seas."⁹ He was relieved after two years, and in April 1954 became president of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, with the rank of vice admiral.¹
     The battleship USS Lynde McCormick, named in his honor, was launched on 28 July 1959, and commissioned on 3 June 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts.¹³

More Information / Background

• Lynde D. McCormick
  
• USS Wyoming (BB-32)
  
• Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic
  
• Naval War College
  
• USS Lynde McCormick (DDG-8).
  

     Edith Jett McCormick was born on 31 May 1897 in Milwaukee, Milwaukee Co., Wisconsin.^1,2 She married John Reginald Beardall, son of William Beardall and Florence Bonser, on 10 February 1917 at St. Ann's Church in Annapolis, Anne Arundel Co., Maryland. The date was moved up due to rising tension with Germany and the groom's probable upcoming deployment at sea.³ She died on 18 May 1997 in Winter Park, Orange Co., Florida, at age 99.^4,2 She was buried on 13 June 1997 at Arlington National Cemetery (Sec. 3, Site 2505-C) in Arlington, Virginia.⁵
     She and her husband John lived in several places in the United States and around the world during his military career, including Washington, D.C., Newport, Rhode Island, Bremerton, Washington, San Diego and San Pedro, California, London, England, and in the Panama Canal Zone.⁶ While living in London she and her husband John had an audience with King George V and Queen Mary.²
     Her husband was listed in the 1920 census in Orchard Grove, Kitsap Co., Washington, home of the Puget Sound Navy Yard. He is listed with his children Edith (age 2) and John (9 months), but his wife Edith is not listed with them. This may be an error by the census taker. John is listed on the bottom line of one page, with the children at the top of the following page, and Edith may have been mistakenly omitted. She has not been found elsewhere in the 1920 census.⁷ Edith and their three children are listed in Orlando, Orange Co., Florida, in the 1930 census, but without John who was probably away at sea.⁸ They are listed there together in the 1935 Florida state census, but have not been found in the 1940 census.⁹
     After her husband's retirement in 1946 they lived in Berryville, Clarke Co., Virginia,¹⁰ then moved to Winter Park, Orange Co., Florida, in 1958.¹¹

     Cora Abbot McCormick was born on 31 August 1900 in Berryville, Clarke Co., Virginia.¹ She married first Morris Richard Clark, son of Richard Anvil Clark and Elizabeth Yarrow Dougan, on 27 August 1921 at St. Mark's Church in Berkeley, Alameda Co., California. The wedding was anticipated as being "the largest and most exquisitely appointed wedding of the early autumn," with "several hundred guests from all over the state."^2,3 Cora filed for divorce in August 1931 in Santa Barbara Co., California,⁴ and the divorce was finalized a year later, in August 1932.⁵ She married second J. Bert Saxby Jr., son of J. Bert Saxby and Hattie Christina Hook, on 17 September 1932 at the St. Cecilia Chapel of the Mission Inn in Riverside, Riverside Co., California.^6,7,8 She died on 13 January 1971 at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Co., California, at age 70.⁹
     In a newspaper article about her upcoming wedding to Morris Clark she was described as "one of the most strikingly beautiful girls in the younger set."³ The night before the wedding she was the guest of honor at a dinner at the St. Francis Hotel hosted by the wife of William Randolph Hearst.¹⁰ She and her husband Morris moved from Berkeley to Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Co., California, in 1927, when he accepted a job there.¹¹ They are listed there in the 1930 census with their son Richard, and a servant, Helen Partch.¹²
     Her second husband Bert Saxby was a pilot, and on 5 November 1933 they flew from Agua Caliente, Mexico, to San Diego, California. Interestingly, about three years earlier, on 25 January 1931, he flew the same plane on the same route with two passengers - Tod Oviatt and Cora's first husband Morris R. Clark.¹³
     They are listed at 91 Cold Spring Rd. in Twp. 2, Santa Barbara Co., California, in the 1940 census, with their daughter Nancy, with Cora's son Richard Clark from her first marriage, and with a servant, Grace Jordan.¹⁴
     In September 1941, about seven months after the death of her husband Bert, she leased her home on Cold Spring Rd. to Count and Countess De Brinon of Paris.¹⁵ In October she traveled to Hawaii to visit her brother Capt. Lynde D. McCormick and his wife, sailing from Los Angeles on 3 October on the SS Lurline, and arriving in Honolulu five days later. Her son Richard (age 13) was then at Bonita School near San Diego, and her daughter Nancy (5) boarded at Howard School during her absence.^15,16 She returned home after about seven weeks, sailing on the same ship from Honolulu on 21 November, and arriving in Los Angeles on 28 November, in time for her daughter Nancy's sixth birthday.^17,18 About two months later, on 22 January 1942, she left for Palm Springs, Riverside Co., California, where she had rented a house for a several-month stay.¹⁹
     She is listed back at 91 Cold Spring Rd. in Santa Barbara Co. in the 1950 census, with her daughter Nancy. Her son Richard and his wife Patricia are listed at the same address, but as a separate dwelling unit.^20,21

     Ellen Jett McCormick was born on 25 March 1914 in Annapolis, Anne Arundel Co., Maryland.² She married Frank Lucius Pinney, son of Frank L. Pinney and Mary Swann Brogden, on 10 June 1936 at Christ Church Chapel in Coronado, San Diego Co., California.⁵ She died on 24 June 1989 at the Westminster Canterbury Retirement Community in Irvington, Lancaster Co., Virginia, at age 75 from pneumonia.⁶ She was buried on 27 June 1989 at Christ Church Cemetery in Weems, Lancaster Co., Virginia.⁷
     She graduated from Holton Arms School in Washington, D.C.⁸
     After their wedding she and her husband Frank took a short wedding trip by car, "their destination unknown," then planned to travel to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he was stationed, and return to Long Beach, California, in the fall.⁵ Ellen sailed from Los Angeles on the SS Malolo on 26 June, and arrived in Honolulu on 2 July.⁹ She returned three months later on the SS Monterey Voyage, leaving Honolulu on 30 September and arriving in Los Angeles on 5 October.¹⁰
     In 1939 her husband's ship, the USS Hull, moved to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.¹¹ She and their young daughter Mary Ellen joined him in Hawaii, sailing from Los Angeles on the SS Matsonia on 19 October 1939 and arriving in Honolulu on 25 October.¹² They are listed there together in the 1940 census, enumerated on 1 April.¹³ She and Mary returned to California about a month later, leaving Honolulu on the SS Chaumont on 14 May and arriving in San Pedro, Los Angeles Co., California, on 22 May.¹⁴

     Lillian Addison Sprigg was born on 5 December 1895 in San Diego, San Diego Co., California.² She married first Ivan Montrose Graham on 16 March 1917 in San Diego, San Diego Co., California.³ She married second Lynde Dupuy McCormick, son of Albert Montgomery Dupuy McCormick and Edith Lynde Abbot, on 2 October 1920 at the Mission Inn in Riverside, Riverside Co., California.^4,5 She died on 23 July 1981 (her obituary says "Wednesday," which was 22 July 1981) in San Diego Co., California, at age 85.^6,7 She was buried at the U. S. Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, Anne Arundel Co., Maryland.⁸
     She and her husband Lynde and their children are listed in Coronado, San Diego Co., California, in the 1930 census⁹, and in Long Beach, Los Angeles Co., California, in the 1940 census.¹⁰

     John Reginald Beardall was born on 7 February 1887 in Sanford, Seminole Co., Florida.^2,4 He married Edith Jett McCormick, daughter of Albert Montgomery Dupuy McCormick and Edith Lynde Abbot, on 10 February 1917 at St. Ann's Church in Annapolis, Anne Arundel Co., Maryland. The date was moved up due to rising tension with Germany and the groom's probable upcoming deployment at sea.¹ He died on 4 January 1967 at the Air Force Base Hospital in Orlando, Orange Co., Florida, at age 79, after suffering a stroke two weeks earlier.^5,6 He was buried on 9 January 1967 at Arlington National Cemetery (Sec. 3, Site 2505-C) in Arlington, Virginia.²
     He graduated from Porter Military Academy in Charleston, South Carolina⁵, then received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Anne Arundel Co., Maryland, where he graduated in 1908. After graduation he served on the battleship USS Illinois during its participation in the cruise around the world with "The Great White Fleet."^7,8 He was officially commissioned a naval officer in 1910⁴, served on the battleship USS Vermont from 1911-1914, and led a company from that ship during the occupation of Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1914. He taught classes in seamanship at the Naval Academy from 1914 to 1917⁷, and served on the battleships Kansas and New Hampshire during World War I.⁴
     From 1920 to 1923 he was an aide to the commandant and ordnance officer at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.⁷ He attended the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, graduating in 1931, and taught tactics there from 1932-1933.⁹ He was aide to Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson from 1936 to 1939⁵, then took command of the cruiser USS Vincennes, serving from 1939 to 1941.⁴
     In May 1941 he was appointed naval aide to President Franklin D. Roosevelt⁷, and was commissioned as a rear admiral in November 1941.⁴ On 31 January 1942 he was named superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy and commander of the Severn River Naval Command, serving until 3 August 1945.⁷ He then was named commandant of the 15th Naval District, the Panama Canal Zone. In 1946 he testified before Congress during its hearings on the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor.⁵ He retired from active duty on 1 November 1946.⁷
     He was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal for his actions during an ammunition fire in 1910, the Army Legion of Merit and the rank of chevalier in the French Legion of Honor for his service in Panama,⁵ the Mexican Service Medal, the Navy Expeditionary Medal for his service at Vera Cruz, the American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, and World War I and II Victory Medals.⁷
     He and his family lived in several places in the United States and around the world during his military career, including Washington, D.C., Newport, Rhode Island, Bremerton, Washington, San Diego and San Pedro, California, London, England, and in the Panama Canal Zone.¹⁰ While living in London he and his wife Edith had an audience with King George V and Queen Mary.¹¹
     In 1920 he was listed in the census in Orchard Grove, Kitsap Co., Washington, home of the Puget Sound Navy Yard. He is listed with his children Edith (age 2) and John (9 months), but his wife Edith is not listed with them. This may be an error by the census taker. John is listed on the bottom line of one page, with the children at the top of the following page, and Edith may have been mistakenly omitted. She has not been found elsewhere in the 1920 census.¹² She and their three children are listed in Orlando, Orange Co., Florida, in the 1930 census (he was probably at sea)¹³, and they are listed there together in the 1935 Florida state census. They have not been found in the 1940 census.¹⁴
     After his retirement he and Edith lived in Berryville, Clarke Co., Virginia,⁵ where he was active in Red Cross and church work⁵, then moved to Winter Park, Orange Co., Florida, in 1958.⁷

More Information / Background

• Great White Fleet
  
• Cruise of the Great White Fleet
  
• United States occupation of Veracruz
  
• USS Vincennes (CA-44).
  

     Morris Richard Clark was born on 16 August 1897 in Alameda Co., California.^3,4 He married first Cora Abbot McCormick, daughter of Albert Montgomery Dupuy McCormick and Edith Lynde Abbot, on 27 August 1921 at St. Mark's Church in Berkeley, Alameda Co., California.^1,5 Cora filed for divorce in August 1931 in Santa Barbara Co., California,⁶ and the divorce was finalized a year later, in August 1932.⁷ He married second Margaret Bentley on 29 July 1933 at the Swedenborgian Church in San Francisco, California.⁸ They were divorced in 1941 in California.⁹ He married third Lorna Williamson, daughter of Willard Forsythe Williamson and Paula Rued, on 1 February 1942 in Reno, Washoe Co., Nevada.^10,11 They were divorced about April 1943.⁹ He married fourth Bessie McKeldin on 12 July 1944 in Rockville, Montgomery Co., Maryland.¹² He died on 15 September 1958 at the Spanish Sanatorium in Mexico City, Mexico, at age 61 from an intestinal obstruction.¹³ He was buried on 8 October 1958 at Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, San Mateo Co., California.^4,13
     He graduated from Alameda High School in Alameda, Alameda Co., California, in December 1914, a semester early, and enrolled at the University of California in Berkeley, Alameda Co., the next month. He was admitted to the university's School of Jurisprudence (i.e., law school) in August 1917.⁹
     However, by that time World War I had been raging in Europe for three years, and the U.S. had formally entered the war in April 1917. Instead of continuing in school, on 6 June 1917, at age 19, Morris enlisted in the U.S. Army Ambulance Service, serving the French Army. He underwent training as an ambulance mechanic at Camp Crane in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and was assigned to SSU (Sanitary Squad Unit) 611.
     They sailed for France on the SS Olympic in late March 1918, and arrived in Brest on 4 April. They traveled by train to St. Nazaire, then to Paris where they picked up ambulances and drove to the Ambulance Base Camp at Ferrières-en-Gâtinais. They trained with the British at Gamaches from 14 May to 6 June, and with the French in the Belfort Sector and in the Vosges mountains from 6 June to 23 July. From 23 July to 3 August they served in the Baccarat Sector with New York City's 77th Division. They then began the real task of transporting wounded soldiers, first in the drive from Chateau Thierry to Fismes, and the Battle of St. Mihiel, from 4 August to 17 September, then in the Argonne, under command of the American Army, from 25 September until the end of the war on 11 November. Among those they transported were soldiers from the famous Lost Battalion. During their service the unit earned the nickname the "Bloody 611."
     Morris was then transferred to SSU 613, ostensibly to do repatriation work, but they were actually part of the "Let's Go!!!" revue that toured France after the war, and Morris was a member of the chorus. He was stationed in Paris from December 1918 until May 1919, when he was sent home, sailing from Brest on the USS Louisville on 21 May, and arriving in New York on 3 June. He was discharged a week later at Camp Dix, New Jersey, and immediately returned to Berkeley to continue his studies.^9,2
     He graduated with his law degree from the University of California in May 1921^9,14, and passed the bar exam in August, the same month as his marriage to Cora McCormick.⁹ He worked in the law office of J. G. DeForrest in San Francisco for a couple years, then joined the Anglo-California Trust Co. as an assistant trust officer. In 1927 he became trust officer at the County National Bank and Trust Co. in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Co., California.⁹ He and Cora are listed there in the 1930 census with their son Richard, and a servant, Helen Partch.¹⁵
     In September 1932, shortly after he and Cora were officially divorced, he moved back to the San Francisco area. He joined the Regional Agricultural Credit Corporation in April 1933, and also did some work for his old J. G. DeForrest firm. On 7 July 1933 he was named assistant district attorney for the Northern District of California.⁹ About a year later, on 16 August 1934, he was appointed special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General in Washington, D.C.¹⁴ He initially worked on enforcing Roosevelt's National Recovery Act, then in the anti-trust department under J. Edgar Hoover. He left that position in 1939, when he became head of the federal antitrust office back in San Francisco.⁹ He and his second wife Margaret are listed there in the 1940 census, along with Margaret's son Harvey from her first marriage.¹⁶
     In 1941 he left government work, planning on taking a position in the private sector with an oil and gas pipeline company in New York, but that job never materialized. He and Margaret also divorced about this time, and he joined the U.S. Navy as an industrial relations officer. In 1942, during World War II, he requested to be put on active duty overseas, and was sent to Tulagi in the Solomon Islands, which the U.S. had captured from the Japanese four months earlier. He was soon promoted to lieutenant commander, and was named captain of the yard of the base there. When he returned to the U.S. he was sent to Officer Training School to complete the requirements for his position. He had earlier been diagnosed by the Navy as an alcoholic, and after an incident at the school he was forced to resign his commission.⁹
     After his divorce from his third wife Lorna Williamson, he moved to Georgetown in Washington, D.C., joining Bessie (McKeldin) (Tucker) Thorne, who he would marry in July 1944. In January 1945 he joined the Washington office of the National Retail Dry Goods Association, and two years later he became public relations director of the Building Owners and Managers Association of Metropolitan Washington.⁹ He and his wife Bessie are listed in Washington in the 1950 census, along with Bessie's son Howard from her first marriage, plus a maid and a butler. His occupation was then listed as an enumerator for the U.S. Census Bureau.¹⁷ He later went into real estate.⁹
     His father died in 1955¹⁸, and in 1957 he received control of his inheritance. He and Bessie then moved to her mother's home in Miami Beach, Dade Co., Florida.⁹ After a cruise to the Orient, they moved to Tequisquiapan, Querétaro, Mexico, about 100 miles northwest of Mexico City.^9,19 Bessie died there in June 1958, and Morris accompanied her body back to Atlanta, Georgia, where she was buried.^9,20 He returned alone to Mexico, perhaps for an operation, and died there three months later.⁹ His Mexican death record lists his residence as the Hotel Jacarandas in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, about 30 miles south of Mexico City.²¹

More Information / Background

• United States Army Ambulance Service
  
• World War I - The Ambulance Service.
  

     J. Bert Saxby Jr. was born on 10 August 1897 in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Co., California.² He married Cora Abbot McCormick, daughter of Albert Montgomery Dupuy McCormick and Edith Lynde Abbot, on 17 September 1932 at the St. Cecilia Chapel of the Mission Inn in Riverside, Riverside Co., California.^3,4,5 He died in an auto accident on 21 February 1941 in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Co., California, at age 43, when he was thrown from his car after hitting a parked car on Cabrillo Blvd. His wife Cora was with him, but not seriously injured, and another passenger was unhurt.^6,7 He was buried at Santa Barbara Cemetery in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Co., California.⁸
     He graduated in 1916 from Santa Barbara High School in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Co., California, where he excelled in sports, including football, tennis, and especially track. After a year at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire, he returned to California and in the fall of 1917 enrolled at Pomona College in Claremont, Los Angeles Co.⁹
     The U.S. had entered World War I in April 1917, and on 5 June 1918, at the end of his first year at Pomona College, he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserves as a chief quartermaster (aviation), for "four or five years." He reported for active duty twelve days later, and was immediately sent to Seattle for training as a pilot. On 9 September he was transferred to the Naval Air Station in San Diego for additional training, specifically in seaplanes, and on 12 November he was sent to the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, again for additional training. By then the war had ended, and he was discharged on 19 January 1919, and appointed as an ensign in the Naval Reserves.⁹
     In the fall of 1919 he started at the University of California in San Francisco, where he was again a track star. He graduated in June 1923 with a degree in dentistry, like his father, and joined his father's successful practice.⁹
     From about 1924 to 1932 he was very active in promoting aviation in southern California. He owned his own airplane, flew in shows and competitions, performed aerial spraying of walnut orchards and marshes to control insects, and helped promote the building of an airport near Santa Barbara.^9,10 In October 1925 the Navy established an aviation unit in Santa Barbara for training new pilots, with Saxby as its leader¹¹, and on 21 February 1930 he was elected commodore of the newly-formed Santa Barbara Aero Club.¹² He occasionally flew friends on holiday trips to Agua Caliente in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, including one in January 1931 with Morris Clark, husband of Cora (McCormick) who Bert would marry 18 months later after their divorce, and one in November 1933 with Cora. He may have given up flying after his marriage; no mention has been found online about any aviation activities for him after about 1933.⁹
     He and Cora are listed at 91 Cold Spring Rd. in Twp. 2, Santa Barbara Co., California, in the 1940 census, with their daughter Nancy, with Cora's son Richard Clark from her first marriage, and with a servant, Grace Jordan.¹

     Frank Lucius Pinney was born on 17 March 1913 in Washington, D.C..¹ He married first Ellen Jett McCormick, daughter of Albert Montgomery Dupuy McCormick and Edith Lynde Abbot, on 10 June 1936 at Christ Church Chapel in Coronado, San Diego Co., California.³ He married second Frances Harfield Combes on 4 November 1989 in Kilmarnock, Lancaster Co., Virginia.⁴ He died on 20 October 1999 in Lancaster Co., Virginia, at age 86.²
     He graduated in 1929 from Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., attended Severn School in Severna Park, Maryland, for a year, and entered the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Anne Arundel Co., Maryland, in 1930. At the academy he was editor of the Lucky Bag yearbook and captain of the tennis team. He graduated and was commissioned as an ensign on 31 May 1934.¹
     After their wedding he and his wife Ellen took a short wedding trip by car, "their destination unknown," then planned to travel to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he was stationed, and return to Long Beach, California, in the fall.³
     From 1934-1940 he served aboard the cruiser USS Portland and the destroyer USS Hull.¹ The Hull moved to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1939¹, and he and his wife Ellen, and their daughter Mary Ellen, are listed together in Honolulu in the 1940 census.⁵
     He returned to Annapolis, where he studied ordnance engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School, then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with an M.S. degree in September 1942. After a few months at the New York Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn, New York, he was assigned to the newly-commissioned battleship USS Iowa in February 1943.
     He served on the Iowa for two years, taking part in the Marshall Islands Campaign, the Mariana and Palau Islands Campaign and the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. On 18 December 1944, as part of Task Force 38, the Iowa was caught up in Typhoon Cobra in the Philippine Sea. Three destroyers were sunk, with 790 men lost. There were no serious injuries on the Iowa, but the ship had some damage and returned to the mainland for repairs, arriving in San Francisco on 15 January 1945.
     From 1945-1947 he served as an aide to Adm. William D. Leahy, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then took command of the destroyer USS Hugh Purvis. In April 1949 he moved to the Atomic Energy Commission in Washington, D.C., working in research and development. In May 1952 he was assigned as commander of Destroyer Division 22. He attended the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington from 1953-1954, then moved to the Bureau of Ordnance, serving as head of the Special Weapons Branch and program director for Nuclear Applications. He commanded the attack transport USS Fremont from 1956-1957, served as deputy director of the Fleet Ballistic Missile (Polaris) Program from 1957-1959, and then took command of the cruiser USS Topeka.¹ In July 1962 he was promoted to rear admiral.⁶

More Information / Background

• USS Iowa (BB-61)
  
• Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign
  
• Mariana and Palau Islands campaign
  
• Battle of the Philippine Sea
  
• Battle of Leyte Gulf
  
• Typhoon Cobra.