William Jacob Schneider was a Marine private 1st class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

When he enlisted he said he was born April 30, 1920 in Oak Park, Illinois, but Illinois birth records say it was April 30, 1921.

His mother, Minnie Tessman Schneider, died unexpectedly on June 28, 1921, at the age of 41. A homemaker, she left behind her husband, William N. Schneider, and four other children.

The father, a factory tool clerk, remarried in 1932 to his wife’s sister Anna. 

The son attended Crane Technical High School in Chicago and Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tennessee east of Nashville. The spring 1940 Census showed him living with his father, then a production clerk at a farm implement business, and step-mother/aunt in Chicago. He was identified as a new worker, but the Census gave no more detail.

Mr. Schneider enlisted in the Marines on April 22, 1940. 

At least one of his brothers, Glenn, served in the Army in World War II.

Sources: the Chicago Daily Tribune and the Chicago Tribune; Cook County, Illinois, birth and marriage records; Census; Marine enlistment records and muster roll. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.