LCDR RICHARD H. GINGRAS, USN
Lucky Bag Yearbook
From the 1925 Lucky Bag:
Richard Hermus Gingras
Class Track (4, 3); Class Soccer (3, 2); Class Boxing (2); Navy Soccer (1); Class Lacrosse (2, 1).
THE simple, the awful whoop—the lil’ fat boy to whose ears the roar of Niagara is as familiar as the roar of subway trains to the ears of a Gothamite. Gaze upon him, one and all—for he has the build of an apple dumpling and the instincts of a polar bear. He thrives upon fresh air in large doses at all seasons, thereby causing his skinny roommate to contemplate many crimes upon his rotund person.
Bound for the Great Outside because of a missing inch of height, but he doesn’t mind.
“I’d rather work for the General Electric in Buffalo than play General Quarters the rest of my life.”
Loss
Richard was lost when USS Houston (CA 30) was sunk on on March 1, 1942 during the Battle of Sunda Strait. He was the ship’s boilers officer.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Richard graduated from Technical High School in Buffalo, New York, in 1921. He was appointed to the Naval Academy by Congressman S. Wallace Dempsey at the request of Henry Seilheimer, local director of the New York State income tax bureau.
Richard married Evelyn Wallace Beattie at the Navy Yard Chapel in Philadelphia on September 1, 1931.
Richard, his wife and daughters Mary Elizabeth and Nancy Wallace were in Pearl Harbor when it was attacked on December 7, 1941.
In 1920, Richard was a bakery salesman. His father Albert was an automobile salesman, mother Maria, and sister Dorothy.
His wife was listed as next of kin; he was also survived by a daughter, Nancy.
Photographs
Navy Directories & Officer Registers
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together, or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
July 1925
October 1925
January 1926
October 1926
January 1927
April 1927
July 1929
October 1929
January 1930
April 1930
October 1930
January 1931
April 1931
July 1931
October 1931
January 1932
April 1932
October 1932
January 1933
April 1933
July 1933
October 1933
April 1934
July 1934
October 1934
January 1935
April 1935
October 1935
January 1936
April 1936
July 1936
January 1937
April 1937
September 1937
January 1938
July 1938
January 1939
October 1939
June 1940
November 1940
April 1941
Richard is one of 26 members of the Class of 1925 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
