By Deborah Larsen
Frederick Charles Blome Jr.
Frederick Charles Blome Jr. was born in Highland Park, Michigan, on December 4, 1920, the son of Frederick and Leila Barribeau Blome. The Blome family moved to Avon Township when Frederick was a child. He attended Rochester High School and graduated in the class of 1939.
Before the war, Frederick worked for National Twist Drill & Tool Company. He entered the U.S. Navy in June 1943 and was stationed aboard the destroyer escort U.S.S. La Prade as a signalman. The La Prade operated in the Pacific Theater, performing escort and patrol duties around Leyte, Ulithi, and Okinawa.
While on the La Prade, one of Frederick’s duties was handling the ship’s mail. He told the Rochester Era that going ashore to retrieve the mail could sometimes cause problems:
I never knew when I left the ship for mail whether it would be there when I got back or not. The worst experience I had along that line came at Guam when I arrived back on the beach just in time to see the La Prade disappearing through the harbor entrance on a rush job. I finally caught up with her two weeks later in Ulithi after an airplane trip on which I practically froze to death.
Frederick was discharged from active military duty in November 1945 but returned to duty during the Korean War. After the war, he married and started a family. He worked in the printing business and started his own company to produce molded plastic picture frames, for which he was granted a U.S. patent in 1974. Frederick and his wife later retired to Palo Alto, California.
Frederick Charles Blome Jr. died at age 81 on October 4, 2004.