FOSTORIAN ROBERT LOCKHART
BECAME REAR ADMIRAL
Thursday, April 13, 1978
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PIX #1 - Rear
Admiral Lockhart and wife, photographed when they lived in Copenhagen,
Denmark.
PIX #2 - 223 West
Tiffin Street where Lockharts lived for many years when Robert and his
brother Bill were boys.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
This is another in the series of article sthat will appear from time-to-time
about people who grew up in Fostoria, and experiences successful careers
in their chosen profession
All the successful
people in this country do not come from the metropolitian areas. In
fact, statistics show that a large proportions come from rural areas.
Today's story
is about another Fostorian who was born and reared here, and went on
to become an admiral in the U.S. Navy.
Robert Green Lockhart
was born in Fostoria January 10, 1902, to John W. and Laura (Green)
Lockhart.
Older Fostorians
will remember his father, John, as a former owner of the Fostoria Review,
and after its sale as news editor of the Daily Times.
"Bob" Lockhart,
as he was known to Fostorians, graduated from Fostoria High School in
1919 and from the United States Naval Academy in 1924.
He received aviation
training at the Naval Base at Pensacola Florida; and subsequently was
stationed at many beses around the United States and in foreign countries.
He was at Pearl Harbor at the time of the infamous attack by the Japanese.
During the second
World War he was serving as navigation officer on the ill- fated Hornet
when she was bombed and disabled after a suicide attack by Japanese
dive bombers and torpedo planes in the South Pacific east of the Solomon
Islands in October 1942. Lockhart and Rear Admiral Charles P. Mason
were the last two men to abandon the Hornet.
Two months earlier,
the Hornet was used by Jimmy Doolittle's bombers for their attacks on
Tokyo and the Japanese were out to "get" it, the "Shangri- La" base
for the Tokyo attack.
Lockhart was a
lieutenant commander aboard the battleship West Virginia and was a member
of the admiral's staff at Pearl Harbor when the Second World War broke
out. He was named executive officer of the Alameda (California) Naval
Air Base after the sinking of the Hornet. Later he was promoted to the
rank of captain and was named commander of the U.S. Navy Air Training
Field, Olathe, Kansas.
At the close of
the war, Lockhart became naval attache to the United States Embassy
in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he remained until 1955, after which he
was retired from the Navy with rank of admiral, having served his country
for 36 years.
In 1955, he became
a consultant for the Rand Corportation of Santa Monica, Californis,
and remained their until 1965, when he retired.
Rear Admiral Lockhart
passed away at the Balboa Navy Hospital at San Diego, California, in
1970.
His wife Ina Katherine
(Van Gundia), to whom he was married in 1926, resides at Rancho Santa
Fe, Californis.
This story would
not be complete with a "local" touch.
Lockhart was graduated
from FHS with the 1919 class which produced several young people who
became successful in their chosen careers.
Opposite the photo
in the Red and Black Annual for that year, appeared the quote..."I want
to be a sailor, a sailor, a sailor". And so he became... notably too.
He was vice-president of his high school class, and on the Red and Black
staff.
The Lockhart family
lived at 223 W. Tiffin Street. The house still stands, unaltered, but
now painted red, and occupied by the Donald Watkins family.
Many Fostorians
do not know that Gerlock Drive, extending north from Culbertson Street
was layed out and developed by John W. Lockhart and Fred Gerlinger.
As previously stated, Lockhart was a newspaper man, and Gerlinger was
a business man and connected with Ohio Savings and Loan.
The other member
of the Lockhart family...all of them upstanding and well- liked citizens.
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