JOHN B. WEEKS, LTJG, USN
John Weeks '33
Lucky Bag
From the 1933 Lucky Bag:
JOHN BRADFORD WEEKS
Factoryville, Pennsylvania
"Bud"
Bud, early feeling the call of the sea, packed his grips and left the little town of Factoryville, Pennsylvania, for the Navy.
During his high school and preparatory school years he had tried many different kinds of sports and athletics; football, tennis, skating, and sailing having been his favorites. However, when he reached the Naval Academy he seemed to forget these, for after a brief try at boxing Plebe Summer, he went out for crew. As one of the plebe crew, a member of the "jayvees," and later of the varsity, he has made an enviable record. In spite of this, he often in his spare time bemoaned the lack of strong tennis opponents.
Among his other diversions we find an interest in the fairer sex, a hobby of working on dilapidated wrecks that he calls cars, and, occasionally, the "academic urge." His one and only ambition is to hunt for wrecked treasure ships. Many an hour will he spend talking about them.
His good qualities are not limited to athletics, for he has a personality that has won for him more friends than fall to the lot of most of us. They are attracted by his unfailing good humor, his sportsmanship, and his willingness to lend a helping hand.
Crew 4, 3, 2, 1; 2 P. O.
JOHN BRADFORD WEEKS
Factoryville, Pennsylvania
"Bud"
Bud, early feeling the call of the sea, packed his grips and left the little town of Factoryville, Pennsylvania, for the Navy.
During his high school and preparatory school years he had tried many different kinds of sports and athletics; football, tennis, skating, and sailing having been his favorites. However, when he reached the Naval Academy he seemed to forget these, for after a brief try at boxing Plebe Summer, he went out for crew. As one of the plebe crew, a member of the "jayvees," and later of the varsity, he has made an enviable record. In spite of this, he often in his spare time bemoaned the lack of strong tennis opponents.
Among his other diversions we find an interest in the fairer sex, a hobby of working on dilapidated wrecks that he calls cars, and, occasionally, the "academic urge." His one and only ambition is to hunt for wrecked treasure ships. Many an hour will he spend talking about them.
His good qualities are not limited to athletics, for he has a personality that has won for him more friends than fall to the lot of most of us. They are attracted by his unfailing good humor, his sportsmanship, and his willingness to lend a helping hand.
Crew 4, 3, 2, 1; 2 P. O.
Biography
From the 1953 edition of the book "Double Three Roundup," published by the class of 1933:
We remember Bud as a good sportsman, always willing to help friends, who was deeply missed when he died of Hodgkin's Disease at the Brooklyn Naval Hospital, April 6, 1939, on return from a shakedown cruise to Africa on the BOISE. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery.
Bud met Jane Ward from Berkeley, California, while he was attending Optical School at Mare Island in 1934, and married her at Cathay Mansions in Shanghai in 1936 while attached to the ASHEVILLE. The ship won the engineering 'E' while he was Engineering Officer. There was a letter of commendation sent to Washington after he completely rebuilt the steam lines of the ship at sea, by-passing a breakdown and thereby saving a long towing job.
Jane and two other wives had an experience that most Navy wives have never had. In December 1937, after the Jap bombing of Shanghai, Admiral Yarnell notified the ASHEVILLE that wives might be taken aboard as refugees and so they accompanied their husbands on board the ASHEVILLE from Hong Kong to Manila.
Bud is survived by Jane, and by his mother and father who are living on the farm that Bud bought on the Olympic Peninsula near Seattle in 1935. Jane married again in 1941; she is now Mrs. W. Fred Nicholson of 539 College Street, Bellaire, Texas.
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Born in Maine, John was one of the youngest boys at age 16 to enter the Naval Academy in 1929. He was appointed by Congressman L. H. Watres after graduating in June as valedictorian from the Keystone Academy in Factoryville, Pennsylvania.
His father Irving, a professor at Keystone Academy, was an accomplished singer, musician, and in 1929, was head of the science department. His mother Grace was also an accomplished musician, and his sisters were Mary and Grace.
He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Photographs
Career
John began his career aboard USS Astoria (CA 34); he is listed as a member of that ship's wardroom in the 1934 and 1935 Navy Directories. In 1936 he served aboard USS Asheville (PG 21), a gunboat in China; in 1937 he was a LTjg and listed as the ship's engineering officer.
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