FREDERICK W. ROBERTS, LT, USN

Frederick Roberts '20

Date of birth: January 28, 1899

Date of death: March 25, 1929

Age: 30

Lucky Bag

From the 1920 Lucky Bag:

Frederick William Roberts

Tawas City, Michigan

"Fred" "Robby" "F.W."

LADIES and Gentlemen:—Our next subject for disgust is one F. W. Roberts: English by humor; Welsh by nature; Irish by looks; and Scotch by taste—a man of most paradoxical words—now he's hard and then he's wild—is never very angry nor never too happy (to get home). In but two things is he constant—he never sees a joke nor lets a woman see him if he sees her first.

Athletically speaking "Fred Willie" has seldom been nearer the scene of operations than underneath the grand stand, a favorite spot for those who despair of Terpsicore and are wont to court with the fair Fatima.

Never studies, never bilges, never stars, never busts, and in fact never does anything which could possibly upset his perfect equilibrium. His center of gravity lies in his stomach, about which he and his world revolve, and it's easy to prophesy that if ever he is captured by one of the gentle sex it will be thru this medium and only by a knockout drop.

But seriously some day we will hear big things of this man, for as soon as he solves the mystery of "after a sleepless night he awoke" and stops blushing when you ask him what he lost his Youngster Sep Leave, he is going to get busy and select his own corner in the Hall of Fame.

Honors: Buzzard; Submarine Squad.

The Class of 1920 was graduated in June 1919 due to World War I. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.

Frederick William Roberts

Tawas City, Michigan

"Fred" "Robby" "F.W."

LADIES and Gentlemen:—Our next subject for disgust is one F. W. Roberts: English by humor; Welsh by nature; Irish by looks; and Scotch by taste—a man of most paradoxical words—now he's hard and then he's wild—is never very angry nor never too happy (to get home). In but two things is he constant—he never sees a joke nor lets a woman see him if he sees her first.

Athletically speaking "Fred Willie" has seldom been nearer the scene of operations than underneath the grand stand, a favorite spot for those who despair of Terpsicore and are wont to court with the fair Fatima.

Never studies, never bilges, never stars, never busts, and in fact never does anything which could possibly upset his perfect equilibrium. His center of gravity lies in his stomach, about which he and his world revolve, and it's easy to prophesy that if ever he is captured by one of the gentle sex it will be thru this medium and only by a knockout drop.

But seriously some day we will hear big things of this man, for as soon as he solves the mystery of "after a sleepless night he awoke" and stops blushing when you ask him what he lost his Youngster Sep Leave, he is going to get busy and select his own corner in the Hall of Fame.

Honors: Buzzard; Submarine Squad.

The Class of 1920 was graduated in June 1919 due to World War I. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.

Loss

Frederick was lost on March 25, 1929. He was the pilot of an aircraft on the tarmac of Corey Field, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida when another aircraft crashed into him. The enlisted student aboard his plane was also killed.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Frederick was born in Canada. He married Judith Maxwell only a few months before, on January 28, 1929, in Pensacola.
His father was the Rev. Joshua, pastor of several Baptist churches and superintendent of the Baptist state missions for 20 years. His mother was Margaret who died in her daughter’s house in 1951. His brother was Newman Ruscin, and his sister was Tirzah D. (Mrs. Robert J. McCandliss.) She and her husband, a medical missionary, served in China for many years.
Frederick’s family was naturalized in 1907. In 1910, they lived in Detroit. In 1920, they lived in Alabaster where his father preached in an itinerant town church. In 1930, his parents and brother lived in Ruckersville, Virginia. In their later years, his parents spent time in Tawas City, Michigan, and in Gordonsville, Virginia.

He was designated Naval Aviator #3086 in 1923.

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.