GM3c Fred Louis Richison

Fred Louis Richison was born Aug. 31, 1920 in Fresno County in central California, likely in Herndon nine miles northwest of Fresno. His mother, Emma Kolz Richison, was a homemaker and his father, Louis Mark Richison, a farm hand. Fred was the youngest of three children.

The family lived in Herndon in February 1920 some six months before the new son was born. The father died in the 1930s. By 1939 the mother and son Fred lived in San Jose.

Fred enlisted in the Navy on Oct. 7, 1939. He was a gunner’s mate 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. Richison’s brother, Francis D., served in the Navy from about 1943 to 1945.

Sources: California birth index; Census; Navy muster rolls. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.