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.

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.

When he applied to the Navy in November 1940 he said he’d completed 11th grade and was still a student at Pasadena Junior College. The school back then included grades 11-14. He said he’d been working at a service station for six months.

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 enlistment records and muster roll. Note: Although he and his father had the same names, the son did not sign his name as junior. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.