S1c George Richard Beck

George Richard Beck was born March 31, 1918, in Oklahoma. His father, John Beck, was a carpenter and his mother, Jane Stafford Beck, a homemaker. The family included about eight other children.

By 1920 the Becks had moved to Denver and by 1930 to Los Angeles. The spring 1940 Census said George Beck had completed one year of high school but was no longer enrolled. He worked in 1939 as a truck driver but reported no income.

Young Mr. Beck enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 6, 1940. He was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was injured in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. He died three days later. Mr. Beck is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.

Sources: military interment record; Census; Navy muster roll.  This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.