EDWIN DENBY, JR., LT, USN

Edwin Denby, Jr. '35

Date of birth: May 31, 1912

Date of death: February 11, 1942

Age: 29

Lucky Bag

From the 1935 Lucky Bag:

EDWIN DENBY, JR.

Detroit, Michigan

"Ned"

A DENSE cloud of smoke and a magazine with a picture of a train on it! Blow the smoke away and you will find Ned at his favorite pastime, smoking a pipe and reading Railroad Stories. Every man that smokes a pipe loves the outdoors. Get Ned to tell you of his auto excursions into the wilds of Michigan. A trip to China gave Ned his first taste of the sea, and he liked it so well he deserted the wilds for the Academy. Here, a lot of hard work on the Trident and the stage gang has taken much of his time. An enviable personality and the desire to do things have gained him many friends and much success.

Stage Gang 4, 3, 2, 1. Stage Manager 1. Trident Society 3, 2, 1. President 1. 2 Stripes.

EDWIN DENBY, JR.

Detroit, Michigan

"Ned"

A DENSE cloud of smoke and a magazine with a picture of a train on it! Blow the smoke away and you will find Ned at his favorite pastime, smoking a pipe and reading Railroad Stories. Every man that smokes a pipe loves the outdoors. Get Ned to tell you of his auto excursions into the wilds of Michigan. A trip to China gave Ned his first taste of the sea, and he liked it so well he deserted the wilds for the Academy. Here, a lot of hard work on the Trident and the stage gang has taken much of his time. An enviable personality and the desire to do things have gained him many friends and much success.

Stage Gang 4, 3, 2, 1. Stage Manager 1. Trident Society 3, 2, 1. President 1. 2 Stripes.

Loss

Edwin was lost when USS Shark (SS 174) was sunk, possibly on February 11, 1942, by a Japanese destroyer.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

When his father died in 1929, Edwin was at the Severn School in Maryland. He also attended Detroit University School.
He married Elizabeth Bissell Lyster in 1937. Their daughter Elizabeth was born in 1939. In March 1940 they moved to San Diego.
Edwin’s father was a Customs Service agent, a seaman, a lawyer, a Congressman 1905-1910, a major in the Marines, and then Secretary of the Navy who was involved in the Teapot Dome oil scandal in 1924. Denby Technical and Preparatory High School in Detroit is named for him. Edwin’s mother was Marian, and his sister was also named Marian.

His wife was listed as next of kin; his father was the Secretary of the Navy under President Harding from 1921 to 1923 but had died several years before the beginning of the war.

Edwin is remembered at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial and also the U.S.S. Shark SS-174 Memorial in Oklahoma.

Photographs

From Jackson's Hole Courier on September 20, 1934
From Detroit Free Press on March 19, 1942

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.