DONALD F. STILLMAN, ENS, USN

Donald Stillman '29

Date of birth: January 16, 1907

Date of death: May 29, 1932

Age: 25

Lucky Bag

From the 1929 Lucky Bag:

DONALD FREDERICK STILLMAN

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

"Don" "Hombre Quieto"

ONE would expect to find the prince of all snakes behind the above mask. But mark me, gentle readers, you may gaze in safety on this blonde beauty. Perhaps in the dim past he may have deigned to charm by a mere glance. If so he has forgotten his old technique, for now he scorns his physical endowment and easy conquests. Yet don't conclude from this that Don is a Red Mike. Nay. Freud and Cable are his interpreters of life. But he believes in sublimation. The exotic beauty of DeBussy is as tangible to him as that of any woman.

Submerged in the smoke of one of his score of fine pipes, feet propped higher than head, a volume of Donn Byrne of Dunsany in hand, or the New World Symphony on the Vic: that's Don's earthly paradise, and he asks little more. While such realization of beauty is at command, life's turbid stream rolls by untempting. The details of existence are unworthy of consideration. His is a calm philosophy that has enabled him to take, without change of disposition, some of the hardest blows a midshipman may suffer.

Loved by his intimates and regarded with awe by those who knew him by hearsay. May the maturer men of the wardrooms recognize the man they are winning.

Black N*************. Class Water Polo 2, 1. Pep Committee 4. Sub-Squad (Two years). 2 P.O.

DONALD FREDERICK STILLMAN

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

"Don" "Hombre Quieto"

ONE would expect to find the prince of all snakes behind the above mask. But mark me, gentle readers, you may gaze in safety on this blonde beauty. Perhaps in the dim past he may have deigned to charm by a mere glance. If so he has forgotten his old technique, for now he scorns his physical endowment and easy conquests. Yet don't conclude from this that Don is a Red Mike. Nay. Freud and Cable are his interpreters of life. But he believes in sublimation. The exotic beauty of DeBussy is as tangible to him as that of any woman.

Submerged in the smoke of one of his score of fine pipes, feet propped higher than head, a volume of Donn Byrne of Dunsany in hand, or the New World Symphony on the Vic: that's Don's earthly paradise, and he asks little more. While such realization of beauty is at command, life's turbid stream rolls by untempting. The details of existence are unworthy of consideration. His is a calm philosophy that has enabled him to take, without change of disposition, some of the hardest blows a midshipman may suffer.

Loved by his intimates and regarded with awe by those who knew him by hearsay. May the maturer men of the wardrooms recognize the man they are winning.

Black N*************. Class Water Polo 2, 1. Pep Committee 4. Sub-Squad (Two years). 2 P.O.

Loss

Donald was lost on May 29, 1932 when he disappeared from USS Peary (DD 226) in the South China Sea while enroute from Manila to Chefoo, China. He was the engineering officer. According to "naval authorities," "there was no storm which could have caused him to be washed overboard."

Other Information

His date of death is recorded in the Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps of 1933 and the Register of Alumni with no details.

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Donald was last seen in his cabin wearing a bathrobe and studying at 10 p.m. The next morning, the bathrobe was in the cabin, but his uniform, including cap and shoes, was gone.
Donald attended Riverside High School where he was a member of Hi-Y.
In April 1930, Donald was an ensign living in Vallejo, California.
His father Henry was a factory superintendent who later became an interior decorator. He decorated the Milwaukee Auditorium, the old Schlitz Palm Garden, the Palace and Majestic theaters and the Ringling home in Sarasota, Florida. He died in September, 1965. Donald’s mother was Ethel who died in 1948, and his brother was Henry, Jr., who died in 1972. Both his mother and brother are buried in Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee.

He has a Find A Grave entry.

Other

From the Wisconsin Veteran's Museum:

Donald Stillman - WVM Mss 1736
Assorted photographs and a photocopied newspaper clipping pertaining to the Navy service of Donald Stillman, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, resident who disappeared from the destroyer U.S.S. Peary in the South China Sea in 1932. The photocopy is of a newspaper article from the Milwaukee Journal a few weeks after Stillman disappeared from the Perry. Photographs include two portraits of Stillman in civilian clothing, one portrait of Stillman wearing a Naval Academy uniform, and a photograph of Stillman in a full Navy uniform and standing on the deck of a ship.

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.