ROBERT W. HELDING, 1LT, USMC

Robert Helding '48

Date of birth: March 15, 1924

Date of death: February 18, 1952

Age: 27

Lucky Bag

From the 1948 Lucky Bag:

Robert Wendell Helding

Janesville, Wisconsin

When the icy winter winds whip across Bancroft terrace and someone yells, "Collars down," that's the Bear. Maryland winters don't even make him shiver compared with a real Wisconsin winter. Bob came here as a Boilermaker from Purdue Univ. and seems to do everything without a strain. He is always happy and conducts a famous one man advertising campaign for a certain Janesville pen manufacturer that sells the '51.' His favorite indoor sport is hibernating, but he is a husky opponent on the athletic field where he feels very much at home. Bob fits well into the tradition that Wisconsin sends fine men to the Academy.

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He graduated with the class of 1948-A, the last of the wartime-accelerated classes, in June 1947. (The bottom half of the class by academic standing, designated 1948-B, completed an extra year and graduated in June 1948.)

Robert Wendell Helding

Janesville, Wisconsin

When the icy winter winds whip across Bancroft terrace and someone yells, "Collars down," that's the Bear. Maryland winters don't even make him shiver compared with a real Wisconsin winter. Bob came here as a Boilermaker from Purdue Univ. and seems to do everything without a strain. He is always happy and conducts a famous one man advertising campaign for a certain Janesville pen manufacturer that sells the '51.' His favorite indoor sport is hibernating, but he is a husky opponent on the athletic field where he feels very much at home. Bob fits well into the tradition that Wisconsin sends fine men to the Academy.

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He graduated with the class of 1948-A, the last of the wartime-accelerated classes, in June 1947. (The bottom half of the class by academic standing, designated 1948-B, completed an extra year and graduated in June 1948.)

Loss

From McKinney Daily Courier-Gazette (Texas) on February 20, 1952:

The Corpus Christi air station has identified the six Navy airmen who were killed when two training planes collided in mid-air near Rockport, Tex. Victims were listed as Ensign Mahlon Devere Busha, Jr.. of Sherwood. Ore.; Lieut. Cmdr. M alter Thomas Fitzpatrick. Jr.. Texarkana, Lieut. (JG) Frederick Eugene Arthur of Redwood. Calif., Ensign Neil August Armstrong II of Chalmette, La., First Lieut. Robert Wendell Helding, Marine Corps, Janesville, Wis., and Lt. (JG) Frederick Jeffrie Blodgett of St. Paul, Minn.

The crash was on February 18, 1952.

Biography

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Robert served at Guam for 18 months and was given flying training at Pensacola where he received his wings on January 24. He was assigned to Corpus Christi for four more months training.

He graduated from William Horlick High School and was married to Doris M. Preshek on September 4, 1948.

He had a military memorial service in Corpus Christi. After a full military funeral, he was buried in West Lawn Memorial Cemetery, Mount Pleasant, Racine, Wisconsin.

He was survived by his wife, parents Mr. O. C. (Chris) and Mrs. Martha Helding, one brother Norman, and sister Elizabeth (Mrs. Kenneth Goepfert) of Racine. His father was a toolmaker for the telephone company in 1930, was a foreman for a farm implement manufacturer in 1940, and head of the engineering department for Parker Pen Company for the next 15 years. He died in 1957, and his wife in 1960. They are both buried in West Lawn Memorial Cemetery, too.

Related Articles

Frederick Blodgett '49 was also lost in this crash.

Class of 1948

Robert is one of 48 members of the Class of 1948 on Virtual Memorial Hall.

• ← Ross Bramwell '48
• Ralph Brown, Jr. '48 →

The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of the alumni in Memorial Hall.