KILBURN H. ROBY, LTJG, USN

Kilburn Roby '21

Date of birth: October 23, 1898

Date of death: December 10, 1924

Age: 26

Lucky Bag

From the 1921 Lucky Bag:

Kilburn Harwood Roby

Decatur, Illinois

"Kib" "Kibby" "Roby"

HERE we have one of Joe's Boys. One could find them together most any morning discussing or arguing the pros and cons of different questions of local interest of which not the least discussed was the great benefit derived from walking as an exercise when taken at regular and frequent intervals.

As a Mexican athlete, he is excelled by few and with ordinary luck he would easily have made his "N" in this sport. But due to the fact that he was not able to be with the boys on Wednesdays and Saturdays, he fell behind and so had to be content with numerals.

Roby's one big hobby is wireless. Give him a couple of coulombs, several amps and a volt and he will connect you up with the Shah of Persia or anyone you may desire. And when it comes to getting a Juice Prof fussed he is a star of the first magnitude.

Still it is not unusual for Harwood to pull some such stunt as turning in at formation; going to chow minus his blouse or cap; or going to a hop without collar or cuffs, but carefully wearing bedroom slippers.

"Go to it Kibby! Show them what you're worth."

Buzzard.

The Class of 1921 was the last of the wartime-accelerated classes. "1921A" was graduated on June 3, 1920; the second half, "1921B", was graduated on June 2, 1921. Kilburn was graduated with 1921A.

Kilburn Harwood Roby

Decatur, Illinois

"Kib" "Kibby" "Roby"

HERE we have one of Joe's Boys. One could find them together most any morning discussing or arguing the pros and cons of different questions of local interest of which not the least discussed was the great benefit derived from walking as an exercise when taken at regular and frequent intervals.

As a Mexican athlete, he is excelled by few and with ordinary luck he would easily have made his "N" in this sport. But due to the fact that he was not able to be with the boys on Wednesdays and Saturdays, he fell behind and so had to be content with numerals.

Roby's one big hobby is wireless. Give him a couple of coulombs, several amps and a volt and he will connect you up with the Shah of Persia or anyone you may desire. And when it comes to getting a Juice Prof fussed he is a star of the first magnitude.

Still it is not unusual for Harwood to pull some such stunt as turning in at formation; going to chow minus his blouse or cap; or going to a hop without collar or cuffs, but carefully wearing bedroom slippers.

"Go to it Kibby! Show them what you're worth."

Buzzard.

The Class of 1921 was the last of the wartime-accelerated classes. "1921A" was graduated on June 3, 1920; the second half, "1921B", was graduated on June 2, 1921. Kilburn was graduated with 1921A.

Loss

Kilburn was lost on December 10, 1924 when the H-16 seaplane he was aboard crashed near San Diego, California. Four others aboard were also killed.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

In March, 1915, Kilburn was appointed to the Program Committee of the high school’s Rotaro Literary society. In May, he played in the Y.M.C.A. tennis tournament. He graduated from Decatur high school in 1916. He played Philostrate in the senior class play of Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night’s Dream. Regarding his favorite book, Kilburn wrote, “’The Count of Monte Christo’ is an adventure story that has no equal. It is so full of varied and unique action that both large volumes are pursued with unabated interest.”
Kilburn married Alice Leavitt of San Francisco in January, 1923. They met while he was stationed at Mare Island Navy Yard where she was a clerk.
His father Frank was a lawyer, mother Ida, and brother Frank, Jr. His sister Helen (Mrs. Joseph Ward) died during the pandemic of “pneumonia superinduced by influenza” in November, 1918.

Kilburn was designated Naval Aviator #3163 in 1924.

He is buried in California.

Photographs

From The San Francisco Examiner on December 12, 1924
From his high school yearbook

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.