HAROLD R. SHEEHAN, ENS, USN

Harold Sheehan '27

Date of birth: January 30, 1905

Date of death: April 19, 1929

Age: 24

Lucky Bag

From the 1927 Lucky Bag:

Harold Robert Sheehan

Natick, Massachusetts

"Jeej" "Jew"

SUCH a little fellow, and yet there is so much that can be said about him. His size is by no means commensurate with his ability and accomplishments. The attraction of the medical profession, together with a desire to serve humanity, resulted in his entering Tufts College.

Jeej's young love for medicine was overcome by a great yearning to become a follower of old King Neptune, so that before long his base of operations was changed to Annapolis. While with us, he has shown himself to be the true Celt, and possesses all the characteristics and instincts of one; however, those would avail him little against the weight and brawn of the majority of his classmates, so he judiciously took up baseball and swimming. Later he was attracted by soccer and played on the class team. When the one-hundred-fifty-pound crew was reinaugurated Jew made the crew squad as coxswain.

He has a thirst for knowledge along with a liking for study? His marks were always up to standard without causing any particular trouble or excess worry.

He has always been ready to help the other fellow, spreading happiness and good cheer, and the amusement we have had from his marvelous anecdotes makes us more than indebted to him. All join in wishing him the greatest success and happiness.

Crew: A Squad 150-lb. (2) Class (1); Soccer: Class (2); Swimming: Class (3) Gymkhana (4); Glee Club (1).

Harold Robert Sheehan

Natick, Massachusetts

"Jeej" "Jew"

SUCH a little fellow, and yet there is so much that can be said about him. His size is by no means commensurate with his ability and accomplishments. The attraction of the medical profession, together with a desire to serve humanity, resulted in his entering Tufts College.

Jeej's young love for medicine was overcome by a great yearning to become a follower of old King Neptune, so that before long his base of operations was changed to Annapolis. While with us, he has shown himself to be the true Celt, and possesses all the characteristics and instincts of one; however, those would avail him little against the weight and brawn of the majority of his classmates, so he judiciously took up baseball and swimming. Later he was attracted by soccer and played on the class team. When the one-hundred-fifty-pound crew was reinaugurated Jew made the crew squad as coxswain.

He has a thirst for knowledge along with a liking for study? His marks were always up to standard without causing any particular trouble or excess worry.

He has always been ready to help the other fellow, spreading happiness and good cheer, and the amusement we have had from his marvelous anecdotes makes us more than indebted to him. All join in wishing him the greatest success and happiness.

Crew: A Squad 150-lb. (2) Class (1); Soccer: Class (2); Swimming: Class (3) Gymkhana (4); Glee Club (1).

Loss

Harold was lost on April 19, 1929 when the airplane he was aboard collided with another over Coronado, California. The pilot of his aircraft, as well as the two crew aboard the other aircraft, all perished. The two planes were returning to the naval station from gunnery practice; both were a part of Scouting Squadron (VS) 3 of USS Lexington (CV 3).

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Known at Natick High School by his nickname “Bunk,” he recorded his yearbook ambition as: Annapolis. He was noted to be a wise cracker, and his hobby was “some girls.”
Harold’s father John was a shoemaker, and his mother was Helen. Harold had three sisters, Josephine, May, and Helen, and he had three brothers, Frank, Alfred, and Thomas. Alfred became a Reverend at St. Matthew’s Church in Dorchester.
Full military honors were accorded at Harold's funeral. A solemn high mass was celebrated at St. Patrick’s Church in Natick with his brother Alfred conducting the mass. Company L, 181st Regiment, National Guard was in the procession to the cemetery. The pallbearers were ensigns from the U. S. S. Utah who graduated with Harold in the Class of 1927: Howard E. Purdy, David W. Tolson, Howard W. Gordon, Jr., Frederick C. Marggraff, Jr., Timothy F. Donohue, and Stanley E. Judson. Harold was buried in St. Patrick’s Cemetery.

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.