MELVIN L. STOLZ, LTJG, USN

Melvin Stolz '10

Date of birth: July 29, 1888

Date of death: May 8, 1915

Age: 26

Lucky Bag

From the 1910 Lucky Bag:

Melvin Lewis Stolz

New York City, New York

"Stolts"

Stolz gives all his words a queer twist.
Calls "carl" "oil," and "jest" sounds like "jist."
Whenever we have
A P-work in Nav
He's sure to be on the sick list.

A TRUE New Yorker, with an intimate knowledge of all its byways and lanes, and especially of its complicated political machinery, Stolz entered the Academy four years ago, instead of pursuing a more sordid commercial career. Two or three times it has been a pretty close call, but he has always managed to make connections somehow, and is still with us. First Class year he had a room so near the door that he hardly had to turn out of bed to be at formation, but in spite of this he and Pop Gillam usually blew in just about the time the O. C. was inspecting the company.

For three years he labored on the track and was developing into an excellent distance runner, but when First Class year came around lie was so wedded to his pipe and his skag that divorce was out of the question. As a consequence he wears a green N 2d instead of the larger letter.

A dogged, determined little man, he has plugged away for four years, and certainly rates his diploma if anybody does.

Track (4,3,2). Green N 2d. Buzzard (a, b)

Melvin Lewis Stolz

New York City, New York

"Stolts"

Stolz gives all his words a queer twist.
Calls "carl" "oil," and "jest" sounds like "jist."
Whenever we have
A P-work in Nav
He's sure to be on the sick list.

A TRUE New Yorker, with an intimate knowledge of all its byways and lanes, and especially of its complicated political machinery, Stolz entered the Academy four years ago, instead of pursuing a more sordid commercial career. Two or three times it has been a pretty close call, but he has always managed to make connections somehow, and is still with us. First Class year he had a room so near the door that he hardly had to turn out of bed to be at formation, but in spite of this he and Pop Gillam usually blew in just about the time the O. C. was inspecting the company.

For three years he labored on the track and was developing into an excellent distance runner, but when First Class year came around lie was so wedded to his pipe and his skag that divorce was out of the question. As a consequence he wears a green N 2d instead of the larger letter.

A dogged, determined little man, he has plugged away for four years, and certainly rates his diploma if anybody does.

Track (4,3,2). Green N 2d. Buzzard (a, b)

Loss

Melvin was lost on May 8, 1915 when he fell out of the "AH-9 hydroaeroplane" he was piloting at Pensacola, Florida.

Other Information

In April 1914 he was a student aviator who nonetheless deployed aboard USS Mississippi (Battleship No. 23) "to assist in operations at Vera Cruz." Some other pictures are here. He flew "many flights" over the Mexican military positions there.

He was survived by his parents and two sisters. He is buried in New York.

Photographs

Left to right: Lieutenant V. D. Herbster, Lieutenant W. M. McIlvain, Lieutenant P. N. L. Bellinger, Lieutenant Richard Saufley '08, Lieutenant J. H. Towers, Lieutenant Commander H. C. Mustin, Lieutenant (Army) B. L. Smith, Ensign Godfrey Chevalier '10, and Ensign Melvin Stolz '10.
From The Evening Herald on April 28, 1914

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.