MARSHALL E. DARBY, JR., ENS, USN

Marshall Darby, Jr. '40

Date of birth: November 10, 1918

Date of death: December 7, 1941

Age: 23

Lucky Bag

From the 1940 Lucky Bag:

MARSHALL EUGENE DARBY, JR.

Reno, Nevada

Darb

When he was a plebe. Marshall was plagued by some first classmen who thought that the son of an Army officer could do an admirable job of scrubbing our famous but malodorous goat. Giving early proof of his flair for opportunism, Marshall managed to be in the hospital when his would-be employers arrived. Ever determined to enjoy himself, he has shown remarkably good taste in his selection of drags. Had he studied a trifle more, his practical nature and common sense would have resulted in an even better scholastic record than the very respectable one he attained. No regrets from Marshall, however, he'll get by.

Swimming 1, Minor Numeral; Reception Committee 1; 2 Stripes.

MARSHALL EUGENE DARBY, JR.

Reno, Nevada

Darb

When he was a plebe. Marshall was plagued by some first classmen who thought that the son of an Army officer could do an admirable job of scrubbing our famous but malodorous goat. Giving early proof of his flair for opportunism, Marshall managed to be in the hospital when his would-be employers arrived. Ever determined to enjoy himself, he has shown remarkably good taste in his selection of drags. Had he studied a trifle more, his practical nature and common sense would have resulted in an even better scholastic record than the very respectable one he attained. No regrets from Marshall, however, he'll get by.

Swimming 1, Minor Numeral; Reception Committee 1; 2 Stripes.

Loss

Marshall was lost in USS Oklahoma (BB 37) during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

n 1930 the family lived in Rockaway, New Jersey; in 1935, Baltimore, Maryland, and in 1940, Washington, D. C. His father was an Army captain, mother Anna, brother Charles.

His father was listed as next of kin.

A collection of Marshall's personal items was auctioned in 2005.

He is listed at the USS Oklahoma Memorial and separately at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Photographs

From the Lucky Bag

Namesake

USS Darby (DE 218) is named for Marshall.

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.