By Deborah Larsen
Glenn Alton Bartholomew
Glenn Alton Bartholomew was born in Flint, Michigan, on September 1, 1922, the son of Lucius and Mildred Cook Bartholomew. He grew up in Rochester, Michigan, and attended Rochester High School, where he played football, basketball, and baseball, and graduated in the class of 1941. After high school, Glenn worked at National Twist Drill & Tool Company.
Glenn entered the U.S. Army in July 1942 and was assigned to the 375th Quartermaster Truck Co., where he achieved the rank of sergeant. The 375th participated in campaigns across central and western Europe. Glenn was released from military service in January 1946.
After the war, Glenn married and started a family. He was employed at a Sunoco service station at Second and Main Streets in downtown Rochester. On the night of December 12, 1947, while he and a co-worker, Warren Twydell, were cleaning the floor of the service station’s garage, an explosion fatally injured both men. They died of severe burns at a Pontiac hospital a few hours later. Investigators theorized that fumes from the cleaning fluid had ignited, causing the explosion.
Glenn Alton Bartholomew died at the age of 23 on December 13, 1947, leaving behind a wife and a two-month-old daughter. He was laid to rest at Mount Avon Cemetery.