NORMAN W. DOUDIET, LT, USN

Norman Doudiet '39

Date of birth: July 6, 1916

Date of death: November 13, 1942

Age: 26

Lucky Bag

From the 1939 Lucky Bag:

WILLIAM NORMAN DOUDIET

Brooklyn, New York

Norm, The Doud

Norm is a sandblower with a sense of humor out of proportion to his stature. Here is one midshipman who is able to smile and display his true disposition even before breakfast. While not a savoir, Norm has kept off the trees that count since his encounter with the Math Department plebe year. Maximum results in a minimum of time is his rule. The Doud cares not particularly for the so-called weaker sex, but may be found on special occasions in Dahlgren with an above-average drag. A good bull session is much more to his liking, however. His supply of unbelievable but true tales appears limitless. In spite of his collection of odoriferous pipes we hope to be shipmates again with Norm.

Battalion Soccer 4, 3, 2, 1; Battalion Wrestling 4, 3, 2, 1; M.P.O.

WILLIAM NORMAN DOUDIET

Brooklyn, New York

Norm, The Doud

Norm is a sandblower with a sense of humor out of proportion to his stature. Here is one midshipman who is able to smile and display his true disposition even before breakfast. While not a savoir, Norm has kept off the trees that count since his encounter with the Math Department plebe year. Maximum results in a minimum of time is his rule. The Doud cares not particularly for the so-called weaker sex, but may be found on special occasions in Dahlgren with an above-average drag. A good bull session is much more to his liking, however. His supply of unbelievable but true tales appears limitless. In spite of his collection of odoriferous pipes we hope to be shipmates again with Norm.

Battalion Soccer 4, 3, 2, 1; Battalion Wrestling 4, 3, 2, 1; M.P.O.

Loss

Norman was lost in USS Juneau (CL 52) during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on November 13, 1942.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Norman graduated in 1934 from the Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School in Brooklyn and was on the wrestling team. In March 1934, he won the 115-Pound Class (semi-finals) in 1:06 at the second annual Greater Long Island interscholastic championship wrestling tournament.
On June 25, 1934, Norman enlisted in the New York State National Guard, 4th Fl. Division. He was discharged on July 9, 1935, as he was appointed to the Naval Academy.
He married Ellenore Wilson on June 14, 1941, at her home on Nautilus Island, Castine, Maine. After Norman’s death, Ellenore trained with the Women Airforce Service Pilots. After the war, she returned home and was instrumental in adding to her father’s Wilson Museum, instituting the Wilson Bulletin, and preserving the historic John Perkins House, Blacksmith Shop and Hearse House.
Ellenore’s father took many reels of 16 mm film. See Wilson family video below -- minutes 4:35 to 7:00 for information on Norman and minute 37:42 for family picnic with Norman. There is also one of Ellenore’s engagement pictures.
Norman’s name appears in the 1954 Polytechnic High School yearbook on page 144 describing the Chapel. It says that the 1946 Polyglot yearbook was dedicated to those 26 Poly Prep men who died in WWII.
His parents were Ernest, an optician, and Ethel, sister Florence Ruth and brother Samuel. Norman’s Colonial ancestors include Captain George Denison, who settled in Roxbury, Mass., in 1631.

His wife was listed as next of kin. (Note that two of the listings have him as a LCDR; believe this to be in error as he was only promoted to LTjg on June 1, 1942.)

Norman is listed at the Courts of the Missing in Hawaii.

Video

The video below has information on Norman from 4:35 to 7:00; at 37:42 there is a family picnic with Norman.

Photographs

From the Lucky Bag

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.