Class Note 1936

Bob Conway ’73, longtime class secretary and necrologist, reports on a recent ceremony celebrating the life of Navy Ensign Charles Stern Jr.

On July 19 the remains of Ensign Charles M. Stern Jr., killed in action on December 7, 1941, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, returned to Albany (New York) on a flight that was met by family members, a U.S. Navy honor guard, representatives of veterans’ groups, and members of the general public. Ensign Stern’s remains were interred on July 21.

Stern was a native of Albany, a graduate of Albany High School and a member of the class of 1936 at Dartmouth, where he majored in history and political science and was a member of Pi Lambda Phi, Green Key, and the staff of The Dartmouth. Following graduation Stern worked in advertising in New York City until August 1940, when he enlisted in the Navy to attend the U.S. Naval Reserve’s midshipman school. He was commissioned an ensign in February 1941 and assigned in April of the same year to the battleship USS Oklahoma in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Stern was on duty on December 7, 1941, onboard the Oklahoma, moored on Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor, when the ship was struck multiple times by aerial torpedoes dropped by attacking Japanese naval bombers. Within 12 minutes the severely damaged Oklahoma listed and sank, trapping 481 crewmembers inside. Ensign Stern was among the 249 crewmembers who died on the vessel, either from wounds received during the attack or by drowning in flooded compartments. In 1943, after Navy salvage operations raised the Oklahoma, the remains of the crewmembers entombed in the Oklahoma were recovered but were classified as “unknowns.” These remains were interned locally near Pearl Harbor until 2015, when DNA testing identified them.

In 1943 the Navy named a destroyer escort ship—USS Stern, DE-187—after Ensign Stern. The ship participated in combat action in the Pacific throughout the remainder of World War II.

—The Editors