F1c Robert Leroy Wyckoff

Robert Leroy Wyckoff was born June 12, 1913 in Newark, New Jersey. His mother, Adeline Van Duyn Wyckoff, was a homemaker, and his father, Isaac Wyckoff, a salesman at a “commission house.”

The son was 17 when his father died in September 1930 and 26 when his mother died in November 1939.

By 1934 the widow and young Mr. Wyckoff, one of at least 10 siblings, was living 3 miles west in Irvington, New Jersey. In April 1940 he was still in Irvington living with two older sisters. The census said he was a high school graduate and in 1939 earned $200 for 21 weeks of work as an auto mechanic – nearly $3,900 in 2022 dollars.

Mr. Wyckoff enlisted in the Navy on May 15, 1940. He was a fireman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

There is a cenotaph for him at Cedar Hill Cemetery in East Millstone, New Jersey, where several relatives are buried.

At least one of his brothers, Alfred, served in the Army during World War I.

Sources: the Asbury (New Jersey) Park Press; the Daily Record of Northwest, New Jersey; grave markers and cenotaph; Navy muster roll; Census. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.