WALTER E. RENO, LCDR, USN
Walter Reno '05
Lucky Bag
From the 1905 Lucky Bag:
Walter Elsworth Reno
Trenton, Missouri
"Rhino" "Padre" "Father Time," "Father."
A harmless, inoffensive old chap, who can't stand the strain of more than two drills a week. Has the unusual knack of describing a simple harmonic motion while reciting. Walks in a sine curve. Always ready to "French" and never gets caught. When he puts on that little yellow overcoat you would take him for old "Spit-in-your-ear" of boiler shop fame. Smokes other people's tobacco. Belongs to the Study Hour Club of United Poker Players.
"Let's go to the show tonight, Padre"—
"Alright, don't care if I do—you'll buy the tickets?"
Buzzard (1) Santee (2).
Walter Elsworth Reno
Trenton, Missouri
"Rhino" "Padre" "Father Time," "Father."
A harmless, inoffensive old chap, who can't stand the strain of more than two drills a week. Has the unusual knack of describing a simple harmonic motion while reciting. Walks in a sine curve. Always ready to "French" and never gets caught. When he puts on that little yellow overcoat you would take him for old "Spit-in-your-ear" of boiler shop fame. Smokes other people's tobacco. Belongs to the Study Hour Club of United Poker Players.
"Let's go to the show tonight, Padre"—
"Alright, don't care if I do—you'll buy the tickets?"
Buzzard (1) Santee (2).
Loss
Walter was lost on November 19, 1917 when USS Chauncey (Destroyer No. 3) was rammed by a merchant ship and sank in the Atlantic Ocean. He was the ship's commanding officer.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
In July 1908, Walter was serving on the gunboat Clayton. He next served on the Virginia.
On September 17, 1912, he married Bethsheba Beatrice Pauline Tracy at her home in Apalachin, Binghamton, New York. Her father was Willis, and she was a grand-niece of former assistant secretary of the navy and state senator Benjamin Franklin Tracy. After Walter died, she applied for a passport in 1918 to work with the Red Cross Canteen Service in France and Great Britain. She had to sign an affidavit not to see her brother serving in France or marry anyone from the American Expeditionary Force.
Walter's father was Lorenzo, a farmer in Lick Creek, Davis County, Iowa. He later was a hotelkeeper in Trenton, Missouri. Walter's mother was Melissa, and his brother was Harry. His sisters were: Charsletta/Dorothy “Dottie,” Violy Mary, Clara, Minnie, and Mary. “Dottie” married F. Stiles in 1892, and Minnie married Mr. Davidson.
From Naval History and Heritage Command:
Walter Elsworth Reno was born in Davis County, Iowa, on 3 October 1881. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1901 and graduated in 1905. While a junior officer, Reno served primarily in battleships. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1910 and during the next four years was stationed in the battleships New Jersey and Wisconsin. From early 1914 until early 1916 he was Officer in Charge at the Chicago, Illinois, Navy Recruiting Station.
Lieutenant Reno then went out to the Philippines, where he took command of the destroyer Chauncey. In the Summer of 1917, after United States had entered World War I, Reno brought his ship from the Far East to the European war zone. While on convoy escort duty west of Gibraltar during the night of 19 November 1917, Chauncey was rammed by a merchant steamer and sank, taking with her Lieutenant Commander Reno and twenty of his ship's officers and men.
He has a memory marker in England.
Photographs
"Photo taken prior to World War I when a Lieutenant."
Beatrice's (Walter's wife) passport photo, 1918.
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.
July 1906
July 1907
January 1908
January 1909
January 1910
January 1911
January 1912
January 1913
January 1914
January 1915
January 1916
January 1917
Namesake
USS Reno (DD 303) was named for Walter.
Memorial Hall Error
Walter is listed on the killed in action panel at the front of Memorial Hall. His loss is more accurately characterized as operational, though, as there were no enemy forces in the area.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
