From 1935, Albert James “Jim” Gray lived on small Guemes Island in Washington state — about a 30-minute ferry ride north of the town of Anacortes, where he attended high school.

He quit school after the 11th grade to enlist in the Navy on Oct. 9, 1940. He was on inactive status and attended  radio school on Bainbridge Island until he was called to active duty on April 27, 1941.

“He wasn’t what you’d call a good student, but he had a lot of street smarts. I think he really just didn’t cotton to the discipline of the classroom,” a classmate, Wallie Funk, recalled years later.

Mr. Gray 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 born June 27, 1923 at Milledgeville, Illinois  to Albert Gray, a mechanic, and Florence Pine Gray, a homemaker. The parents eventually divorced, but lived in Chicago as of April 1, 1935.

A memorial service for young Mr. Gray was held at the Pentecostal Assembly of God Church in Anacortes. There is a cenotaph for him at Edens Cemetery on Guemes Island.

Sources: Anacortes Museum and Maritime Heritage Center; Census; U.S. Department of Defense; The Billings (Montana) Gazette; Navy enlistment records. Photo courtesy of the Anacortes Museum and Maritime Heritage Center. ​​This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.