LOUIS H. MAXFIELD, CDR, USN
Louis Maxfield '07
Lucky Bag
From the 1907 Lucky Bag:
LOUIS HENRY MAXFIELD
St. Paul, Minnesota
"Louey," " Max," " Maxey," "Cyclops"
An enthusiastic ex-student of Boston Tech. who recites with such vigor that the people of Annapolis wonder if the Brigade is having cheer practice. Was made adjutant of the Plebe Battalion because he had parallax of the eyes, and could dress the companies by the intersection of his two lines of sight. Commanded the Nevada in fine style First Class cruise. Incidentally came aboard from a dance at St. George's Island with all the trimmings of his white blouse gone except the hooks—she was overheard to say that she didn't care for these. Made himself eligible for Royalty at the class supper and was crowned by Dr. Grady the next week. Has rosy cheeks, a debonair manner and a hearty way about him even when rhino-ing.
Class Ring Committee; Santee; Buzzard (2); Manager Class Hockey Team.
LOUIS HENRY MAXFIELD
St. Paul, Minnesota
"Louey," " Max," " Maxey," "Cyclops"
An enthusiastic ex-student of Boston Tech. who recites with such vigor that the people of Annapolis wonder if the Brigade is having cheer practice. Was made adjutant of the Plebe Battalion because he had parallax of the eyes, and could dress the companies by the intersection of his two lines of sight. Commanded the Nevada in fine style First Class cruise. Incidentally came aboard from a dance at St. George's Island with all the trimmings of his white blouse gone except the hooks—she was overheard to say that she didn't care for these. Made himself eligible for Royalty at the class supper and was crowned by Dr. Grady the next week. Has rosy cheeks, a debonair manner and a hearty way about him even when rhino-ing.
Class Ring Committee; Santee; Buzzard (2); Manager Class Hockey Team.
Loss
Louis was lost on August 24, 1921 when the British-built airship R-38, intended for US Navy use as ZR-2, crashed near Hull, England. Forty-four of the 49 men aboard died.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Louis attended MIT in Boston from September 1902, until January 1903. He then took the examinations for the Naval Academy.
His grandmother Mrs. Alexander Cathcart attended the D. A. R. congress in Washington in April 1906, and then visited with Louis at the Naval Academy. In September, he was ordered to the Illinois in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
On March 6, 1909, he married Harriet Page in Norfolk. Her paternal grandfather was Commander Hugo Nelson Page who was with Commodore Perry on Lake Erie. Her maternal grandfather was Commodore Marshall Parks.
In 1916 Louis spent six months at the Curtiss plant in Buffalo, New York. He was supervising naval work being carried on at the plant and acted as naval inspector.
Louis wrote an article shortly before his death entitled “Life in the Hold of the ZR-2.” Per The Boston Globe, August 25, 1921, the article “gives an idea of the hazards encountered in the maintenance and operation of a giant dirigible and of the necessity for the strictest inspection to keep the ship in trim with the atmosphere. It is reprinted from a report in United States Air Service.”
When Louis died, he and his wife were living in Ambrough with their children 11-year-old Page and 2-year-old Peter. His widow was there watching the rescue work with the other widows.
Louis' father Louis H. was a businessman. His mother was Adelaide, brother Alexander Cathcart Maxfield, and sisters Eleanor and Alice (Mrs. Marshall Coxe.)
From Together We Served:
Comdr. Louis H. Maxfield, U.S.N., who was in charge of the U.S. Rigid Air Detachment in training at Howden, and who was to be the Commanding Officer of the ill-fated airship on the flight to America, was born in 1883 at St. Paul, Minnesota. He entered the Naval Aviation service in 1914, and was promoted to Temporary Commander in 1918. During the War he was in command of the U.S. Naval Station at Painbaeuf, France, and served with distinction. During a flight in the French airship "Capitaine Caussin" he dived overboard from a great height and rescued an enlisted man who had fallen overboard. Comdr. Maxfield was decorated by the Italian Red Cross with a silver medal for distinguished work during the Messina earthquake, with the French Naval Life-saving Medal (Silver), was an Officer of the Legion of Honour, and was decorated by the U.S. Government with the Navy Cross and the Victory Medal.
He was designated Naval Aviator #17 (LTA) in 1915.
Louis was survived by his wife and two children; he is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Photographs
From the Daily News on August 25, 1921
From The Buffalo Enquirer on August 25, 1921
From the New York Tribune on August 25, 1921
Louis's family's 1920 passport photo
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.
January 1908
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January 1915
January 1916
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March 1918
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January 1920
January 1921
Related Articles
Valentine Bieg '10, Emory Coil '12, and Henry Hoyt '14 were also lost when ZR-2 crashed.
Memorial
On July 2, 1943, at a celebration for the christening of the newest Goodyear-built K ship, Louis and eight other men lost in lighter-than-air flight were honored with a memorial tablet on a granite rock at the Wingfoot Lake station at Suffield, Ohio. The other honorees were: LCDR Zachary Lansdowne '09 in the Shenandoah crash in 1925, LT Charles Bauch on the U.S.S. Akron in 1931, LCDR Emory Coil '12 in 1921, LT Arthur R. Houghton in 1925, LT Henry Hoyt '14 in 1921, LT J. B. Lawrence in 1925, LT C. G. Little in 1921, and LT Frank Trotter '23 in 1942.
Memorial Hall Error
The Lucky Bag, his headstone, and all contemporary references spell his name "Louis." Memorial Hall has "Lewis."
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
