S1c Robert Kovar

Robert Kovar was born Dec. 12, 1921 in Cook County, Illinois. His mother, Mary Willem Kovar, was a homemaker and his father, Stefan Kovar, a punch-press operator. The parents were immigrants from Czechoslovakia. 

The family moved to a farm at Wayland in southwest Michigan in about 1930. Mrs. Kovar died on Dec. 22, 1934 of tuberculosis and heart failure. The father married Amelia Skultety the next summer.

Robert attended Wayland High School, then enlisted in the Navy on Sept. 9, 1940. He was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

He was a member of St. Cyril & Methodius Catholic Church in Gun Lake, Michigan.

His family included about 10 children and at least one other sibling also served in the military. Fred Kovar was in the Army in Germany from 1956 to 1958.

Sources: The Allegan (Michigan) News; Census; Department of Defense; Navy muster roll; grave marker; Michigan death certificate and marriage license; family obituaries. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.