ENS Robert Lawrence Leopold

The tragedy of Robert “Bobby” L. Leopold’s death aboard the U.S.S. Arizona was compounded barely 27 months later and half a world away when the destroyer escort named in his honor was sunk by a German U-boat.

The young ensign was one of 1,177 men killed on the Arizona in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. When two German torpedoes hit the U.S.S. Leopold (DE 319) in March 1944 south of Iceland, 171 crew members died. Just 28 were rescued.

Mr. Leopold was born in Kentucky on Nov. 11, 1916, and became a lawyer like his father, Lawrence. His mother, Irma Swabacher, was a homemaker. The young man graduated from Louisville Male High and earned his undergraduate and law degrees from   the University of Louisville. As an undergrad he was president of the student council in the College of Liberal Arts and earned top marks in public speaking, European history and sociology. He was on the honor council in law school and graduated in 1940.

He volunteered for the Naval Reserve Officer Training program that July and studied as a midshipman at Northwestern University’s Chicago campus. Out of a class of 650 he was one of 332 commissioned as ensigns in early December by a then relatively unknown rear admiral named Chester Nimitz. He went aboard the Arizona on Dec. 28, 1940.

The destroyer escort named for the ensign was launched in June 1943 at Orange, Texas in ceremonies attended by his family, including sister Katherine, who had joined the WAVES — the women’s U.S. Naval Reserve. A University of Michigan graduate, she too became an ensign, and served in Washington, D.C.

Before she joined the WAVES, Katherine and another sister, Helen, had been volunteers for the Army Air Forces. The country was on high alert for enemy attacks on the U.S. mainland, but radar wasn’t widely available in early days of the war. So, instead, the military used civilians to report plane sightings. Working at the Interceptor Command in New York City, the Leopold sisters and dozens of other young women tracked the movement of planes by plotting them on maps.

Meanwhile, back home in Louisville, their mother volunteered for the Navy League and with Bundles for Britain. The latter group sent clothes, blankets, medical and other supplies to British civilians during the war.

The University of Louisville named a building in Mr. Leopold’s memory. It was first used as a military barracks and later as a women’s dormitory. It was razed in 1979. 

Mr. Leopold and another ensign, E.K. Olsen, were in charge of the swim team on the Arizona. Swimming was one of several sports in which the crew competed against teams from other ships.

Sources: The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky; At ‘Em Arizona ship newspaper; University of Louisville yearbook; U.S. Census; marriage certificate; University of Central Florida; University of Louisville digital library; the Michigan Alumnus magazine; Kentucky birth index; Navy enlistment records. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.