Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1946 Lucky Bag:

John Palmer Ruckel

From his home port he came to Crabtown; plain, pleasing, and unaffected “J. P.” Anyone who could smile on Monday morning, become interested in an afternoon Steam drill, or be perpetually enthusiastic on a variety of subjects amid studies and sports, sparingly punctuated with demerits and dragging, must be a derivative of “B-1.” We some times wondered about John, but his happy hours of sack drill broke some illusions. If any one topic ever has to absorb all those ergs of energy, John’s doomed to success, even though it be something as baffling as the mysteries of Juice.

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The Class of 1946 was graduated in June 1945 due to World War II. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.

Loss

From the Find A Grave entry for his wife, Molly Jane:

Molly Jane and John had two children, Gail and Andy, and were stationed in Florida, Texas and Alameda, CA. Ironically, after serving two tours of duty as a fighter pilot over Korea, John was killed during a training mission flying from Sacramento to Alameda.

John was co-pilot of the plane, a “Navy Beechcraft,” when it crashed on February 1, 1952; the pilot was also lost.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

John graduated from Arkansas City High School in 1940. A reporter for the yearbook, he also played in both the band and orchestra. He attended Cowley College for two years and was on Student Council. He played Dr. Oliver in the speech class presentation of “This Genius Business.”

His father was Paul, motor car dealer, mother Helen, sisters Dorothy and Ruth.

John met Molly at the wedding of her sister Peggy to one of his classmates. He is buried in Kansas.

Photographs

From his 1942 college yearbook