“We can always count on Albert’s doing his best,” said Albert Hendrix Peterson Jr.’s high school yearbook.

Mr. Peterson graduated in 1939 from Andrew Jackson HIgh School in Queens, New York where he studied chemical engineering.

He enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 15, 1940, and was a fire controlman and petty officer third class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

Mr. Peterson was born Aug. 9, 1921 in Queens. His mother, Ethel Belles Peterson, was a homemaker and his father was a stenographer at a law office. The father was a Norwegian immigrant. The family included two other sons.

When Albert Jr. applied to the Navy in October 1940 he said he worked six months as a securities runner for Craigmyle, Roger & Co at One Wall Street in New York.

His brother Lloyd Daniel served in the Navy during World War II. Another brother, Roy, served in the Army from February 1946 through February 1949.

Sources: New York birth index; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; Andrew Jackson High School yearbook; World War II military registration card; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.