S1c Raymond Lyle Richar

Truman and Grace Campbell Richar outlived all three of their children, including Raymond Lyle, who was killed on the U.S.S. Arizona in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

Raymond was born May 5, 1921 in Galeton, Pennsylvania, a town of almost 3,000 in the north-central part of the state. His father worked for a railroad and later as a truck driver for a lumber company. His mother was a homemaker.

Raymond enlisted in the Navy on October 15, 1940 and was a seaman first class on the Arizona when he died. A newspaper obituary said he loved the Navy and planned to make it a career.

Brother Ronald, four, drowned in a sledding accident in 1929. The third brother, Charles, was 19 when he died of muscular dystrophy in 1948.

Sources: The Star-Gazette of Elmira, New York; The Potter Enterprise of Coudersport, Pennsylvania; Kean County (Pennsylvania) Democrat; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania World War II Veterans’ Compensation Bureau; Census; Pennsylvania death certificates. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.