Genealogy Story – My Father’s Friends

I recently came across two pictures of my father with some of his friends. These men were all in their early 20s and single. And these men remained his closest friends throughout his life and they had many things in common. So, how did they meet? And what can I learn about them that can help me understand my father a little bit more.

First, let me introduce these men and comment on these pictures. Although these pictures were taken the same day, there are five men in one picture and only four in the other. One of the men in the pictures is unknown to me so I cannot comment on him further. And one of my father’s closest friends was not there that day and so does not appear in the pictures.

Left to right in the first picture are the following individuals: Frank (?) about whom I know little else; Al (Albert) Coe, Harold Hill, my father Vernon Russell, and Jim (James MacBroom). Missing from this first picture is Zeke (Clarence) Pierpont. This picture was taken in March 1943. All the men are very “dapper” with their traditional fedora hats and long coats, except for my father who has a short jacket.

[Picture of friends]

 

The second picture is of these same men, except that Jim MacBroom does not appear in it. The rest of them have turned their hats around and are making funny faces for the camera. It is obvious that they are having a good time.

[Second picture of friends]

 

Becoming Friends

But how exactly did these men become friends. Like most of us, it is through shared interests and shared experiences. They were all roughly the same age. Most of them lived in Waterbury, CT, in relatively close proximity to one another. They all went to high school there (three of the five in the same graduating class). And several of them were part of the young adult group that met at Mill Plain Church. They all worked as toolmakers – being apprentices at the time of the above pictures. Let’s look at the details of each man (in alphabetical order by last name).

Albert Coe

Albert was born on 4 July 1919 in Wolcott. Since Wolcott did not have its own high school, he would have gone to high school in Waterbury. Waterbury had three high schools at the time. Crosby was the “academic” high school and the one where people went if they had intentions of going on to higher education. Leavenworth was the equivalent of today’s vo-tech high school and offered training in things related to entering the workforce. It was mostly male dominated (see below under Harold Hill for a class picture). And Wilby was the “general purpose” high school for everyone else. Since Albert eventually because a toolmaker (like all of the men here), he would have gone to Leavenworth – class of 1937. Albert was the only one of these friends who did not work at Scovill, working instead for Remington in Bridgeport initially, then for another smaller company in Waterbury.

Harold Hill

Harold was born on 4 Dec 1919 in Waterbury. He was part of the Leavenworth class of 1938 along with both Vernon Russell and Clarence Pierpont. (In the below picture, my father and Harold are sitting next to each other as the 6^th and 7^th in the front row and Clarence is standing in the 5^th row as the 8^th person from the left.) My father and Harold were best friends. They not only attended school together, but lived just a few houses away from each other. My father’s sister and Harold’s brother shared a birthday and had got married to each other in October 1938.

[Leavenworth class of 1938]

 

James MacBroom

James was born in Scotland on 10 August 1921, making him the youngest of the men here. His family emigrated to Canada in 1923 and then emigrated to Waterbury in 1927. He would have graduated from Leavenworth in 1939. He lived at 79 South St, about 1.5 miles from my father and Harold.

Clarence Pierpont

Clarence was born on 9 Sep 1920. He lived at 3172 East Main St. But the Pierpont family were quite active in the Mill Plain Church – about a mile from their home. Like Harold and my father, Clarence was part of the Leavenworth High School class of 1938 and worked initially at Scovill as an apprentice toolmaker.

Vernon Russell

My father was born in Bridgeport on 20 Nov 1920. His family moved around a lot – from Bridgeport to Waterbury back to Bridgeport to New Milford to Danbury. He had a very nomadic life (see here). At the time the above pictures were taken, my father was living with his grandfather and step-grandmother at #57 Radcliffe Ave, just a block from the Mill Plain Church and just around the corner from the Hill family (he had moved here during his junior year of high school). Like the other men here, he would have walked the mile or so from home to Scovill each day.

Commonalities

Shared schooling – all at the same high school, Leavenworth (1 – class of 1937, 3 – class of 1938, 1 – class of 1939). Shared work experience – all toolmakers (4 at Scovill, 1 elsewhere). Five single guys who enjoyed each other’s company and even goofing around at times!

 

After the War – Marriage, Homes, Family

When the above pictures were taken of these men together, WWII had already begun and the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. But as men working for defense contractors who were responsible for delivering munitions to our military, all were initially exempt from the draft. That was to change a year after these pictures were taken and military service required their personal service. But their individual lives still had much in parallel. With only a few exceptions which I will note below, they married after the war was over, they used their military separation pay to purchase homes in the same town as each other (Wolcott), and they began having families of 3-5 children, with two of these children born by 1950 who attended school with the children of the other families. Their friendship literally lasted a lifetime!

Albert Coe

Albert married Marion Elizabeth (Betty) Heller on 1 Sep 1946. She was from a small town in PA (Espy). I do not know how they met. Since Albert was already living in Wolcott, he simply brought his bride back to CT with him. They had four children, all girls – Eileen (Lee) (1947), Janet (1949), Dorothy (1950), and Carol (1953). None were in my class at Wolcott HS as Lee was a year older, but Janet was one of my sister’s best friends. Al’s wife, Betty, was also very active in Girl Scouts as was my mother, so we had a lot of interaction with them. Al passed away in 1983 at the age of 63 and Betty in 2007 at the age of 79.

Harold Hill

Harold married Gloria Hartshorn on 20 Apr 1947. She was from Waterbury. As their home was not ready to move into yet, they actually lived with my parents for a short time right after their marriage. They had three children – Bruce (1948), Deborah (Debbie) (1949), and Craig (1951). Since Harold’s brother was married to my father’s sister, we call them all “cousin” instead of “cousin’s cousin”. The family had a new house built in 1955, but things were not always smooth between Harold and Gloria and they divorced in 1960 (the only one of these five couples to do so). Harold got custody of the children. He eventually re-married 27 years later and moved to California after which we did not see much of him. Bruce was my classmate, but he died at the age of 44 from AIDS. Craig died a few years ago from exposure to agent orange from his time in Vietnam. Harold passed away in 2002 at the age of 82 and Gloria in 2004 at the age of 74.

James MacBroom

James married Louise Neilsen on 29 Aug 1943, a few months after the above pictures were taken – the only one to marry prior to the end of WWII. She had been born in Bridgeport (like my father), but her family had moved to Waterbury sometime in the late 1930s. The couple initially lived in Waterbury, but James then built his own house in Wolcott around 1950. They had four children – Andrea (Andi) (1948), James (1950), Glenn (1953), and William (1956). Andi was my classmate, but like Bruce Hill she passed away early at the age of just 35 in 1983. James died in 1993 at the age of 72 and Louise in 2017 at the age of 98.

Clarence Pierpont

Clarence (Zeke) married Barbara Bishop on 14 Feb 1948. She lived in Meriden, CT, and she was part of the YTC (Youth Temperance Council) there while Clarence was part of the Waterbury YTC which met at Mill Plain Church. My father took part in their wedding (see picture below). The moved into a new house in Wolcott, just around the corner from us. They had five children – Dave (1949), Sharon (1950), Gary (1952), Robert (1954), and Sandy (1958). Dave was closer in age to me so we were best friends growing up, but he was in my sister’s class as they were both born in 1949. Gary passed away in 2014. When my uncle Zeke died in 2006 at the age of 85, my father’s comment was that he had lost his best friend. That loss was a factor in his own passing away later that same year. Barbara passed away in 2011 at the age of 84.

[Wedding of Pierponts]

 

Vernon Russell

When the war began, my father only knew my mother as the younger sister of his friend Zeke Pierpont as she was four years younger than he was – so she was just a freshman starting high school as he was graduating and she went to Crosby while he went to Leavenworth. After high school my mother went to Hartford to study hairdressing and she lived with her aunt there. When she returned a year later, she had a boyfriend – not my father. But as the young people from Mill Plain Church went off to war those who remained would correspond with them (you can read her story about that here). When my father came home from the war in April 1946, he proposed to her 10 days later. My parents married on 7 Sep 1946, the weekend after Al and Betty Coe married. Both Harold Hill and James MacBroom took part in their wedding (picture below). They moved to a home they purchased in Wolcott where they had five children – Alan (me) (1948), Beth (1949), Charles (1954), Dawn (1956), Ed (1958). My father passed away at the age of 86 in 2006 and my mother at the age of 88 in 2012.

[Russell wedding]

 

Some Concluding Thoughts

It seems that the friends we make in our high school years remain friends the longest. My father spent his growing up years in other places, but I never recall him talking about anyone he knew from those years. But these men from his high school years remained his best friends for decades. He outlived the rest of them, and, as I noted, when his last remaining best friend passed away in early 2006, my father lost the will to continue living himself.

I see that in myself as well. Despite the 56 years that have elapsed since my senior year of high school and despite the fact that I have not lived in Wolcott since then, I remain friends with many of my high school classmates (roughly a quarter of them are Facebook friends of mine). In contrast, from my five years of university, I am only in contact with one person – my best friend there who served as best man in my wedding. I have a handful of friends from my over 30 years of working together for the same company. And I have a number of friends from my 46 years of going to the same church. But despite my not being a very social person in high school, the fact that I am still in contact with so many of my classmates is noteworthy with me just as it was with my father and this small group of “forever friends” that he made in his late teens and kept close to him for so many decades.