Leopold, Robert Lawrence, ENS

Robert Lawrence Leopold was born 11 Nov 1916 in Louisville, KY and died on 7 Dec 1941 as a result of hostile action in WWII.  His parents were Lawrence Smith Leopold (1872-1973) and Irma Schwabacher (1883-1973).  Per the 1920 and 1930 US Census his father was a lawyer and his mother a housewife.  Robert had 2 older sisters and was a 1934 graduate of Louisville Male High School in Louisville, KY.  One of his sisters was a Ensign in the WAVEs and assigned to Washington, DC.  He then graduated from the University of Louisville with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1938. At the University of Louisville, he was Student Council President and belonged to the Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity.  He became a member of the Kentucky State Bar Association and American Bar Association after earning his a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree in 1940 and was presented the Phi Alpha Delta Senior Award.  He married Patty Annette Hastings (1917-2013), but no further information could be found on her.   Robert entered the Navy right out of college.  
 
Robert entered the Navy Reserves on 10 Jul 1940.  His service number was O-095884.  Following training on the USS Wyoming, he was appointed midshipman 16 Sep 1940 for active duty training at Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School (Abbott Hall) Northwestern University, Chicago, IL. Having completed his training he was commissioned an ensign 12 Dec 1940 and reported for duty aboard the USS Arizona on 28 Dec 1940 where he was a Communications Watch Officer.   At the onset of the December 7, 1941 attack, the battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) was moored at berth Fox 7 on Battleship Row.  The repair ship Vestal (AR-4) was on the port side; and the starboard side faced the northeastern shore of Ford Island. Just before 8 am, the ship’s air raid alarm sounded and the crew was ordered to general quarters. During the attack the battleship was struck by as many as eight aerial bombs, including one 1,700 lb armor-piercing shell which penetrated the deck near the Number 2 turret and detonated in the smokeless powder magazine, causing a cataclysmic explosion which destroyed the ship forward and ignited a fire which burned for two days. Most of the Arizona crewmen who perished in the attack died instantly during the explosion. The ship quickly sank to the bottom of the harbor along with 1,177 of the 1,512 personnel on board, representing about half the total number of Americans killed that day.  Ensign Leopold was initially reported as Missing in Action and later reported as Killed in Action.  
 
Ensign Leopold is buried on the USS Arizona and is memorialized at the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl) in Honolulu, HI. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart on 21 Jan 1943.   
 
References:
Wikipedia
https://pearlharbor.org/facts-uss-arizona-bb-39/
http://www.ibiblio.org/phha/arizona/history.html#pearlharbor
 
This information was researched and written on behalf of the USS Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.