In Memorium
This page is dedicated to the memory of USS
Caperton Sailors. These tributes have been provided by family members
of the Sailors. If you would like to provide a tribute to a sailor
who has passed on, please email it to me at donald@caperton.info and I will add it to this section.
• Walter
F. Brady
• Carmen Romano
• Walter Bucklad
• Frank Vodhanel
• Joseph
Gilmore
• Herman W. Gullett
Walter F. Brady - 2007
It is with great sadness that I inform you of the death
of Walter Brady who served on the USS Caperton in 1957-1958. Walter,
my "life partner" of 23 years, and I attended the reunion
in Bath, Maine in the summer of 2000 and enjoyed it very much. In the
summer of 2006, he was diagnosed with a very aggressive brain cancer.
Walter battled cancer in his characteristic heroic but understated
fashion. He died at my home in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 23 January
2007 at the age of 73 years.
He was, the second oldest child and oldest son in a family of six
children, a loving and beloved son, brother, uncle great uncle and
friend. He was the love of my life. He graduated from the College of
the Holy Cross (where he was a member of ROTC) and received graduate
degrees from Harvard and Indiana Universities. When he died he was
Associate Professor, Emeritus of mathematics at Connecticut College,
where he had taught for 34 years. Walter loved running, sailing, playing
the piano and staying in touch with friends from many parts of his
life.
Gail Shulman
top
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Carmen Romano 1924 - 2006
On behalf of myself & three brothers, It is with regret I inform
you of my father’s (Carmen Romano) passing on August 20, 2006,
losing his battle with lung cancer.
My father proudly served on the U.S.S. Caperton between the years
1943-46. Throughout his battle with this terrible disease, he never
once complained & was
very proud of his years in the Navy.
Besides a caring & loving husband to my mother, grandfather of
seven & great grandfather of one, always cherished his time with
his family.
An avid New York Yankees fan, could always be found watching
the game & yelling
at the TV when things weren’t going well.
He always had a great time at the reunions as well.
Patrick Romano
top
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Walter Bucklad 1929 - 2005
Just a brief note to inform you that my Dad, Walter Bucklad, passed
into final peace this past Sunday, November 27th, 2005, after a long
struggle with complications due mainly to Diabetes.
I have not been fortunate enough to meet any of his fine mates from
the Caperton, but he always kept me posted of the good times shared
during your reunions. I'm an Army wife with an undaunting respect for
our service members throughout the world, and it always touches my
heart deeply when I recall the many dedicated sailors our country is
most fortunate to have serving us, past and present. Fortunately, my
Dad was one of those sailors. Without his service to the Navy, I likely
would not be here to write this most unfortunate news to you today,
as the Navy brought him to Newport, RI, which is where he was ported
when he met my mother, Joan M. (Sweeney) Bucklad.
With a grateful heart, I thank the US Navy for bringing my Dad 'home'
to RI, where he chose his final 'port of call' to be. His grandchildren
meant the world to him, and I suppose we owe much to the Navy for that
as well. We will always keep the spirit alive in this way, and my children
will fondly reflect and remember how 'Papa Bucky' found his home with
us from the USS Caperton at Newport to his final resting place at the
VA Cemetary in Exeter with military honors this Saturday morning, December
3rd, 2005, 11a.m.
God Bless America, the sailors and families of the USS Caperton, and
all our service members throughout the globe!
With Grateful Heart,
Mary Beth (Bucklad) Mooney
Valrico, FL
(The youngest of Walt's six children)
top
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Frank Vodhanel 1923 - 2005
To glimpse the character of Frank Joseph Vodhanel, who died of Leukemia
on Saturday at age 81, consider this story:
One afternoon a homeless man asked Frank and his daughter Cyndi for
money as they walked out of Home Depot.
“Why don’t you have a job,” Frank asked?
The man said he was an electrician, but also a drunk, and had only
been sober for 14 days.
“Show up at this address, at this time, sober, and I’ll
give you a job,” Frank said. The man showed up at the high tech
tool-and-die company Frank had founded and stayed for ten years.
Frank loved people. He was not afraid to take risks. He poured his
creativity and passion into his large family, his entrepreneurial ventures
and extensive charity work.
Born in Youngstown Ohio, in 1923, he moved to Los Angeles at age 17
and began studying business in night courses at USC.
As a young man he’d taken an apprenticeship in which he learned
to make precision wooden models that are used in manufacturing—an
elite craft known as pattern making. In 1949, after working as a union
pattern maker, he formed his own company--Apex Pattern Company--which
made the molds used to create components used in aerospace and, later,
automobiles. At the peak of the company’s success, Frank would
comment that there wasn’t a plane in the sky that didn’t
have at least one part with which Apex had been involved. Frank’s
business acumen led to other successes, including numerous real estate
ventures and the founding of Wilshire Bank and Huntington Savings and
Loan.
Although he plunged quickly into a life of responsibility, he had
arrived in California with a different, secret plan. He’d put
together his first sailboat—a scow—at age 14 in the backyard
of his Ohio home, and he wanted to build another and explore the world.
As it happened, the U.S. Navy fulfilled part of that dream, assigning
him to the USS Caperton, a 370 foot destroyer, on which he served as
quartermaster, fighting in some of the South Pacific’s bloodiest
battles and weathering three typhoons.
Frank’s love of adventure and the ocean never faded. Over the
years he owned a succession of powerboats and yachts. “Each time
he had a new boat built,” recalls son Mark, “I had to fight
like hell to keep him from having 5 inch guns mounted on the bow.” Frank
captained with gusto. He found joy in deep sea fishing with family
and friends and spending lazy afternoons off Catalina telling stories
of storm waves crashing over the Caperton’s bow and island waters
red with blood.
As First Mate, Frank’s wife Evelyn had her own role and her
own story-telling style. One e-mail to friends described Frank’s
efforts to “park,” the boat: “While he’s inside
his warm, dry pilot house… I’m standing at the tippy top
front of the boat in the wet, windy weather.’
Frank first caught sight of Evelyn Guilfoyle coming out of a UCLA
extension class. He invited the “good lookin’ gal” to
a young Catholics meeting. Granddaughter Annie Vodhanel-Preis recalls
Frank’s description of that meeting as “like watching a
black-and-white movie starring Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant.
He and Evelyn married and stayed married for 56 years. They had three
girls and three boys, including Michael, who drowned at age 2. Years
later, when daughter Cyndi was at a low point in her life, Frank advised
her to appreciate the blessing that her children were all healthy. “As
long as all your children are alive, you’re doing well,” he
said.
By all measures, the life Frank shared with his family and friends
was uncommonly full as reflected in everything from his front row,
dugout season seats in which he rooted for the Dodgers to the elaborate
home workshop in which he practiced woodworking. A gourmet cook, he
delighted in creating lavish spreads for his large circle of friends
and in opening his large Hancock Park home to events benefiting the
many clubs and charitable organizations to which he belonged.
He was a member of the Jonathan Club, and relished his tours and activities
with the club’s gourmet society, arts society, cigar club and
wine club. He served as president of Holy Family Adoption Agency, was
on the board of the directors of St. John of God, and the Knights of
Malta (K.M.). He was a Knight of Holy Sepulcher (K.H.S.) and the Hancock
Park Historical Society and raised funds for various organizations
including Sisters Devoted to the Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart
High School.
Frank passed away at Cedars Sinai Hospital, surrounded by family and
friends. He is survived by his wife, Evelyn Vodhanel; his children;
Lois Vodhanel, Debbie Vodhanel and her husband Jim Preis, Mark Vodhanel
and his wife Wendi, Cyndi Baxter and her husband Brick, Frank Vodhanel
Jr. and his wife Judy; brothers Cyril and Joseph, sisters Ann and Mary,
and grandchildren Lauren Verbanic, Annie and John Preis, Kathleen Vodhanel,
Robin Cave, Samantha Freitas and Kelsy Vodhanel,
The funeral was held Wednesday at 11 at St. Brendan Catholic Church,
310 S. Van Ness. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations
be made to Catholic Charities. A website in honor of Frank has been
set up at www.InMemoryOfFrank.com.
top
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Joseph Gilmore Jr.
- 2004
GILMORE, JR., JOSEPH H., 80 -of Longport, died Friday, October 1 after
a long illness. He was born in Pittsburgh, PA before moving to Ventnor
in 1930. He attended Georgetown University before enlisting in the
U.S. Navy to serve on the destroyer U.S.S. Caperton in World War II.
After the war, he moved to Longport where he started a construction
company and went on to build many houses in Longport in the 1950's
and 1960's. He loved art and architecture, his pets, antiques, and
word games and spent much of his retirement drawing and painting. He
was predeceased by his beloved son, Joseph H. Gilmore III in 2003.
He is survived by his daughter, Suzanne Gilmore of Longport; his son,
Charles P. Gilmore, Esq. of San Juan, P.R.; his former wife, Nancy
Phillips Gilmore of Longport; and a sister, Joanne Gilmore Lowe of
Southfield, MI.
A Memorial Mass will be held on Tuesday, October 5 at 11 a.m. at the
Church of the Epiphany in Longport. Friends may call from 10-11 a.m.
at the church.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations be made to the Longport
Volunteer Fire Department. George H. Wimberg Funeral Home.
credit
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - From the Atlantic City Press
pressofatlanticcity.com
top
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Herman W. Gullett - 1999
Herman W. Gullett, a snipe on the U.S.S. Caperton during WWII, passed
on April 24, 1999 of giloblastoma Grade 4 (invasive brain cancer).
He was the middle child of Knox and Aldia Wilson Gullett. He was born
in Wills Point, Texas and upon returning home from the war attended
watchmaking school. He opened his first business in Canton, Texas about
1946, married in 1949, then was recalled to duty during the Korean
Conflict. He served off the coast of California on a tin can but did
not ship out to Korea as someone—he said not him—scuttled
the ship. His time ran out and he returned to Canton and reopened his
business. He retired as a successful watch and jewelry repairman and
spent his last years remodeling old houses.
He enjoyed telling his only grandson about his adventures on the Caperton
during WWII, so many of his experiences will not soon be forgotten.
He is survied by his wife of 49 years, Mattie Lou Gullett; a daughter,
Lou Ann Everett; and 1 grandson, Walter Teal, all of Canton, Texas.
top |