GRAHAM N. FITCH, LT, USN
Graham Fitch '23
Lucky Bag
From the 1923 Lucky Bag:
Graham Newell Fitch
Washington, D.C.
"Deacon" "Lover"
OUIET, dogged and determined, this lad came to us from the Army. These characteristics soon won him the unassuming but never-the-less eminent title of Deacon. Although he does apparently forget that cognomen and has become a fusser of no mean skill. One of the fair ones sent him a delicious cake one carefully concealed birthday with a note of added sweetness attached. After the resultant brooming he had an weakened desire for birthday cake and concluded his letter of thanks with "woman, use discretion".
The Academic battle has never seemed to worry him. Each term he slips by with the necessary 2.5 tucked securely up his sleeve. Perhaps the three characteristics have helped.
His efforts at wrestling wouldn't frighten Strongfort, but he managed to eat wrestling table toast intermittently through two or three seasons, ending each year on the class team.
"Gee, wife, is that the right answer? I didn't get but half that."
Wrestling Squad (4); Numerals (3, 2); Tennis Squad (3); Numerals (3); Class Tennis (2).
Graham Newell Fitch
Washington, D.C.
"Deacon" "Lover"
OUIET, dogged and determined, this lad came to us from the Army. These characteristics soon won him the unassuming but never-the-less eminent title of Deacon. Although he does apparently forget that cognomen and has become a fusser of no mean skill. One of the fair ones sent him a delicious cake one carefully concealed birthday with a note of added sweetness attached. After the resultant brooming he had an weakened desire for birthday cake and concluded his letter of thanks with "woman, use discretion".
The Academic battle has never seemed to worry him. Each term he slips by with the necessary 2.5 tucked securely up his sleeve. Perhaps the three characteristics have helped.
His efforts at wrestling wouldn't frighten Strongfort, but he managed to eat wrestling table toast intermittently through two or three seasons, ending each year on the class team.
"Gee, wife, is that the right answer? I didn't get but half that."
Wrestling Squad (4); Numerals (3, 2); Tennis Squad (3); Numerals (3); Class Tennis (2).
Loss
Graham was lost on December 17, 1927 when USS S-4 (SS 109) sank immediately following a collision with USCG Paulding (CG 17) near Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
He and five others were closed off in the forward torpedo room. They communicated with rescuers via morse code tapping on the hull before ultimately succumbing to asphyxiation.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Graham was born in Arkansas as was his sister Hermione. In 1914, his family sailed from Naples.
Graham was appointed by the President to the Naval Academy.
After the sinking of the S-4, Graham would signal his rescuers with a wrench using Morse code. Because of the weather, rescuers were not able to get air hoses to the men trapped in the torpedo room, and they all died several days later.
Less than six months’ earlier, Graham married Maria Herrera in San Jose, Costa Rica. She was from Puerto Rico and only 19 when Graham died. She had recently moved in with his aunt in Boston. Several days after the disaster, Maria met with Donald Weller’s wife, Marion, to console each other.
Graham was the great-grandson and namesake of Graham Newell Fitch of Logansport, Indiana, who represented Indiana in the U. S. senate from 1857 to 1861. Graham’s father was the nephew of Col. Charles Denby, one-time ambassador to China.
He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His headstone bears the inscription: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
Photographs
From the Evening Star on December 18, 1927
Related Articles
William Callaway '11, Roy Jones '16, Joseph McGinley '21, and Donald Weller '23 were also lost when S-4 sank.
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.
March 1924
July 1925
October 1925
January 1926
October 1926
January 1927
April 1927
October 1927
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
