About
Donald Garth Richards, the son of Cleon and Mable Richards, was born on June 20, 1913, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. By 1930, he and his family had moved to Rensselaer, New York, where he worked at a gas station and a confectionery store. He was married and residing in Schenectady by 1935.
Donald joined the United States Navy on September 19, 1942, and got his basic training in Newport, Rhode Island. He was a Machinist's Mate First Class on board the USS Spence. He had been on the cruiser Tuscaloosa before being reassigned to the USS Spence, and he had done six months of convoy duty in the Atlantic before heading to the Pacific in 1943. He had served in Bougainville, Savo Sea, the Marshall Islands, and on Saipan. Donald was lost at sea on December 18, 1944, when the USS Spence was destroyed by Typhoon Cobra. He is remembered at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Philippines.
Sources: The Schenectady Gazette, Find A Grave, Ancestry