RALPH M. GRISWOLD, CAPT, USN
Ralph Griswold '02
Lucky Bag
From the 1902 Lucky Bag:
Ralph Mancill Griswold
Worcester, Massachusetts
"Grizzly," "Stone-face."
I love my love with a "G" because he is gay, good-natured, and grins. I hate my love with a "G" because he is grouchy, grumpy, and growls. His name is Griswold and he is a great goose. A man with eccentricities sometimes approaching genius, but never getting there. Will bet on either side of any question, but always wins. Once posed as a barber pole. "Say, fellows, I heard a pretty good story the other day."
Four Buttons. Next on Buzzard; President Flat-iron Syndicate; Class photographer; Lucky Bag Committee; Cruise caterer.
Ralph Mancill Griswold
Worcester, Massachusetts
"Grizzly," "Stone-face."
I love my love with a "G" because he is gay, good-natured, and grins. I hate my love with a "G" because he is grouchy, grumpy, and growls. His name is Griswold and he is a great goose. A man with eccentricities sometimes approaching genius, but never getting there. Will bet on either side of any question, but always wins. Once posed as a barber pole. "Say, fellows, I heard a pretty good story the other day."
Four Buttons. Next on Buzzard; President Flat-iron Syndicate; Class photographer; Lucky Bag Committee; Cruise caterer.
Loss
Ralph was lost when the gig he was aboard collided with a barge and then sank near Balboa, Panama, on January 20, 1929. He was returning to USS Whitney (AD 4) from shore leave.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
In 1900 Ralph lived his mother who was a manager of an art museum, his brother Arthur, and three aunts and their children in Worcester, Massachusetts.
In February 1903, Ralph was to be an assistant naval constructor. That year, he took a special course in naval architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
On July 28, 1904, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Ralph married Ethel Marie Sharp. The wedding was supposed to be at the D. C. residence of Commander Alexander Sharp's (Naval Academy graduate, Class of 1875,) but he was assigned to the Chattanooga at Newport News.
On September 19, 1909, the Los Angeles Times reported that several naval officers reported that “there is nothing to prevent any one, sufficiently skillful, from 'doping' out a set of observations which would place him, theoretically at least, at the north pole.” So, “how can the observations taken by Dr. Cook and Commander Peary prove that they have been to the pole.” Ralph along with Lieut. A. Staton ('02) were quoted in the article. Ralph was the navigating officer of USS St. Louis which sailed for San Francisco the day before.
Ralph said, “There is only one way that I am aware of, in which an observer could show that he had been at a given point on the earth's surface, and even that would be simply a matter of veracity. If he could report having seen an eclipse, that would prove that he had been within a certain more or less circumscribed radius. The limits over which an eclipse can be seen are well defined, and any one who could prove that he had witnessed one would, ipso factor, prove that he had been within that radius.
“What observations an arctic explorer could give that would prove his claim that he had reached the pole I do not know. In fact I do not believe that any positive proof of that sort can be adduced. Mind you, I am not taking sides in this matter at all, for I have seen only a few disjointed reports from either of the explorers.”
In September 1925, Ralph's wife Ethel and their daughters, Nancy and Elizabeth, sailed from Honolulu to San Francisco.
Ethel's father was Major Thomas Sharpe, U. S. Army retired. She was a past vice regent, chapter historian and corresponding secretary of the Army-Navy Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Ralph and Ethel's first daughter died at birth. Nancy became Mrs. Hugh K. Clark, and Elizabeth became Mrs. John W. Miller.
Ralph's father was Dr. Elisha Griswold of Sharon, Pennsylvania. His mother was Nancy Green (Heywood,) and his brother was Dr. Arthur Heywood Griswold of Hartford, Connecticut.
He was survived by his wife and two daughters; Ralph is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Photographs
From the 1902 Lucky Bag
From the 1902 USNA Photograph Book
From Home of Heroes:
Griswold, Ralph M.
Commander, U.S. Navy
Commanding Officer, U.S.S. Kroonland
Date Of Action: World War ICitation:
The Navy Cross is awarded to Commander Ralph M. Griswold, U.S. Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession as commanding officer of the U.S.S. Kroonland, engaged in the important, exacting and hazardous duty of transporting and escorting troops and supplies to European ports through waters infested with enemy submarines and mines.
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.
January 1903
July 1906
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July 1928
October 1928
January 1929
Ralph is one of 2 members of the Class of 1902 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
