Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1939 Lucky Bag:

JAMES JASPER LeCLARE

Jojo, Frenchy, Chocolate

Football 4, 3, 1; Soccer 3, 2, 1; Baseball Manager 4, 3; Juice Gang 4, 3, 2, 1; 1 P.O.

FROM the shores of Lake Ontario to the banks of the River Severn came Jim LeClare, varsity bridge player of the University of Rochester. Two years of college also helped a little along the path of Academy academics . . . Authority is plentiful for his good nature, easy-going pleasantness, and remarkable facility for getting the news just a little late. Even if he did sing in the shower and use the typewriter after turning-in time, no better roommate could be desired. His willingness to help and his agreeable nature are singularly dependable. The path of his existence was smooth until 2/c summer, when engine trouble developed—not a big locomotive, just a small yard engine. Jim likes the Navy, and it will like him.

Loss

James was lost on May 29, 1944 in some sort of incident at the dry docks at Hunters Point, San Francisco.

Other Information

Lt. James J. LeClare Killed on Dry dock

Lt. James J. Le Clare, son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Le Clare, 228 River in San Francisco, Calif., last Monday (May 29, 1944), the Navy Department announced. At the time of his death, Lieutenant Le Clare was in charge of a section of a floating dry-dock. While here he [unintelligible] University of Rochester, later transferring to the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, from which he was graduated as an ensign and assigned to the USS Colorado. Before being called to the naval reserve he was employed by Eastman Kodak Company in Tennessee. In 1933 he was one of 19 Rochester Boy Scouts and three leaders who took a six-week tour through Hungary in the International Boy Scout Jamboree. Two months ago he married Miss Edith Hoeft of Glendale, Calif. Burial will be in Glendale. Besides his wife and parents, Lieutenant Le Clare Is survived by a sister, Mrs. Harold C. Perry of Rochester.

He had been a member of the Class of 1937 at the University of Rochester.

He is buried in California.

Shipmate

From the August 1944 issue of Shipmate:

JAMES JASPER LECLARE, ‘39, Lt. DE-V (S), USNR. Died 29 May 1944 at Naval Dry Docks, Hunters Point, San Francisco, Calif. U. S. Area.

Photographs

From the 1939 Lucky Bag

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.

Memorial Hall Error

James is not listed with his classmates. He was identified through the diligent efforts of Leslie Poche, a volunteer who combed through Shipmate issues to find operational losses not accounted for in Memorial Hall.