PFC Richard J. Jr. Minear

Richard John Minear Jr. was born at Redding, California 145 miles north of Sacramento on Oct. 16, 1921 to Richard Minear, a manufacturing foreman, and Mary “Mae” Wood Moore Minear, a homemaker.

He was 16 when his mother died, and he and an older half-brother, Francis Moore, then lived with an aunt. Both boys attended Shasta Union High School in Redding. Richard also attended Sacramento Junior College, where he played football. Francis entered a Jesuit  seminary and was ordained a priest in 1947.

Richard enlisted in the Marines in April 1940. He was a private first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

Francis also served — as a military chaplain — and on Memorial Day 1953 conducted a requiem Mass for Richard above the sunken battleship.

Sources: The Sacramento Union; the Sacramento Bee; the Redding Record-Searchlight; California birth index; Census; Navy muster rolls; grave marker at Santa Clara (California) Mission Cemetery. Marine photograph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.