S2c Harold Thomas Robinson

Harold Thomas Robinson Jr was born in Pasadena, California on May 2, 1923. His father was a shipping clerk for a wholesale plumbing business and his mother, Hazel Nott Robinson, a homemaker. They also had two daughters.

Harold Jr. was president of the winter 1940 class at Fremont High School. The faculty named him an Ephebian, the school’s highest honor for students with outstanding character, leadership, and scholarship. He also belonged to the boys’ honor group called the Knights.

The spring 1940 Census said he both attended school and was a movie theater usher, earning $195 for 50 weeks of work in 1939. His older sister was a movie theater cashier.

He enlisted in the Navy on Jan. 23, 1941, and was a seaman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

On the 13th anniversary of his death a local newspaper published a poem by his grandmother, Eva Leanora Nott, then 76 years old. She wrote, in part: “We hesitated thoughtfully / Before we let him go. Twas very hard to say good-bye / As all good parents know. He was strong and husky / We thought t’would do him good. And so we let the dear lad go / Just as we thought we should. He sailed away so happily / With a smile upon his face. With Uncle Sam in the Navy / He thought he’d found his place.”

Sources: The Pasadena (California) Independent; The Pasadena Post; California birth index; Census; Navy muster roll; Fremont High yearbook. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.