COX Albert Wallace Richter

Albert Wallace Richter was born Feb. 15, 1920 in North Dakota. His father, Charles Richter, was pastor of the Congregational Church in Beach, a town of about 1,100 in the southwest part of the state. His mother, Ida Kittilson Richter, was a homemaker.

The father resigned from the Beach church in 1921 and by 1930 the family had moved to Fircrest, Washington, now a suburb of Tacoma. By then the family included seven children and the father and oldest son, David, demolished houses for a living. The father died in 1935 and David in 1937.

Son Albert, known as Al, graduated from Stadium High School in Tacoma in 1939. The yearbook said he belonged to the Christian Union and worked outside of school.

He enlisted in the Navy on April 9, 1940. An older brother, Charles, enlisted in the Army the next February.

Albert Richter was a coxswain 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.

At least one other brother, Thomas, enlisted in the Army in 1942.  Charles and Thomas survived the war.

Sources: the News Tribune of Tacoma, Washington; the Bismarck (North Dakota) Tribune; Census; Navy muster roll; grave markers; Stadium High School yearbook; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs death file. Yearbook photo. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona