Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Crusty Admiral Ernest J. King

Admiral King doesn’t look crusty in this photo of him at his Class Reunion in April 1944
(Courtesy www.history.navy.mil)
What kind of man was Admiral Ernest J. King, the greatest and most accomplished person ever born in Lorain, Ohio?

The answer: apparently he was a pretty crusty guy – who snarled at his aides and didn’t like to be awakened from a sound slumber.

Read all about it in the hilarious article by Jack Walsh of the Washington Post below, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on February 22, 1969. In it, Walsh writes about the much-decorated Lt. Commander Robert E. “Dusty” Dornin, who served as an aide to Lorain’s Number One Son – and lived to tell about it.

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I still find it ridiculous that Admiral Ernest J. King didn’t make the cut in 2018 for Lorain Schools’ Alumni Association’s inaugural class of distinguished alumni. Have any of the honorees done more to make the city famous than Admiral King? Or is more about the honoree having living relatives in the area, or being a young role model that kids can relate to?
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Admiral Ernest J. King has been a regular topic on this blog since the beginning. Click here to visit some of those old posts, which include his 1942 visit back to Lorain for the big Homefront Celebration, and this post (and this post) about his birthplace on Hamilton.

1 comment:

  1. ...Admiral King's daughter Elizabeth once said, "My father is the most even-tempered man I know - he's always angry." (Should be pointed out though that his children - six daughters and a son - always said he was a loving, if strict father)
    It's truly a shame that he didn't make the cut for the Distinguished Alumni - I'm supposing that helping to save the world isn't quite distinguished enough for the selection committee.

    Mike

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