HENRY B. NIX, LCDR, USN

Henry Nix '51

Date of birth: September 2, 1929

Date of death: September 22, 1962

Age: 33

Lucky Bag

From the 1951 Lucky Bag:

Henry Branch Nix

Beverly Hills, California

Writing about four years in a few lines seems a little absurd ... for these four years have been a revelation about Hank Nix . . . Hank Nix the actor . . . Hank Nix the M. C. . . . Hank Nix the realist . . . Hank Nix the greatest friend in the world ... to those who know him, he was great ... a realization of the true value of persons and things ... if one reading this biography wishes to know '"What city was losing Hank while Navy was gaining him?" or what city "claims" him as its favorite son, he must look elsewhere . . . for those are trite details about trite persons . . . Hank is not one of these.

Henry Branch Nix

Beverly Hills, California

Writing about four years in a few lines seems a little absurd ... for these four years have been a revelation about Hank Nix . . . Hank Nix the actor . . . Hank Nix the M. C. . . . Hank Nix the realist . . . Hank Nix the greatest friend in the world ... to those who know him, he was great ... a realization of the true value of persons and things ... if one reading this biography wishes to know '"What city was losing Hank while Navy was gaining him?" or what city "claims" him as its favorite son, he must look elsewhere . . . for those are trite details about trite persons . . . Hank is not one of these.

Loss

Henry was lost on September 22, 1962 when the Martin P5M Marlin he was piloting crashed on Montague Island in the Gulf of Alaska. All ten men aboard were killed. They were members of Patrol Squadron (VP) 42, operating temporarily from Naval Air Station Kodiak instead of their home base at North Island, California.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Henry was born Henry H. Branch, III. He later took the name of his mother’s second husband, attorney and judge Lloyd S. Nix.
Henry was a native of Lincoln, Nebraska, and graduated from Everett Junior High School. He later graduated from the Brown Military Academy in Southern California.
After the Naval Academy, he served one year aboard the USS Princeton in Japan and Korea.
He married Elizabeth “Gale” Nightengale Bampus on December 22, 1952, at St. Albins Episcopalian Church in Westwood, California.
Henry received his wings on August 13, 1953, in Pensacola.
His father was Henry Branch, Jr., an insurance agent; his mother was the former Helen Ryons, and his sister was Bennita. His parents divorced in August, 1940. Henry’s grandfather and great-uncle co-owned Branch Brothers Wholesale Leather and Shoe Company in Lincoln.

From VP Navy:

The pilot's wife, Mrs. Mary Nix, mother of five children was under a doctor's care. Nix, an Annapolis graduate, is a Navy veteran of 11 years. Their children are Kenneth, 16; Lindell, 15; Carole, 11; Thomas, 10, and Laura, 5.

He is buried in California. His wife died in 1998 and is buried with him.