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In Memoriam
A California Redwood
Another member of the Greatest Generation has passed away.
Another member of the Greatest Generation passed away — on October 29. My father, Ivan D. Thunder, was born in September 1913 in San Francisco, the son of an Irish immigrant and the daughter of an Irish immigrant surgeon. His extended family had all survived the Earthquake of 1906. He grew up in the Pacific Heights section of the city. He and his brothers played on the grounds of the Presidio and among the remains of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. As a 12 year old, he disobeyed his parents and stayed awake listening to the radio report of Lindbergh’s flight. He was a Boy Scout when Scouting was new (founded 1910) and a member of Maryknoll Juniors when that society of Catholic priests had just been formed to send men to China. He was tall and lied about his age when he was 14, taking a summer job aboard a San Francisco-Hawaii steamer. (One of his favorite books was Richard Henry Dana, Jr.’s Two Years Before the Mast (1840).) About 15 years ago, he wrote a memoir of his freshman year at Bellarmine Prep, founded in 1851, and sent it to the school.
In 1929 his family relocated to Chicago. A sister, the eldest of the family, married on the Saturday after the Stock Market Crash. My father attended Loyola Academy (Class of ‘32) which, at the time, was adjacent to Loyola University. He played football and his team scrimmaged against the college team. Maybe that’s when he first started talking about attending the College of Hard Knocks.
He was the only one of his siblings to attend college. He dreamt of becoming a civil engineer and succeeded. During the Depression he worked his way for five years through the four-year program at Armour Tech, founded in 1893 and now the Illinois Institute of Technology, graduating in 1937. Upon graduation, he could not find a job and was the obvious choice among family members to care for his ill mother, who died in March 1938 at the age of 63.
A couple of years later, he was at work for the Panama Canal, when the United States entered World War II. He later joined the United States Navy and was a lieutenant (jg) with the 133rd Naval Construction Battalion (CBs or SeaBees). He had leave in Chicago in 1943, when he made a call to the Hughes’ residence, seeking a date. The devout Catholic mother answered. He apologized that he was seeking a date with her daughter on Good Friday but that he was only in town for the one day. She replied that her daughter was engaged to be married. Not deterred, he asked for another daughter, Rosemary, whom he had seen a few times over the years but had never met. A short time later, Rosemary with her chaperone-sister Constance, traveled by train to Williamsburg, Virginia. Ivan and Rosemary were married six months after their first date. His two brothers, also in uniform, were able to make the wedding in Chicago. Indeed, one brother, Joe, decided that, since the entire family was there, he and his Chicago area girlfriend would marry on the following Monday.
Ivan landed on Iwo Jima on D-Day + 1. He was nearly killed three times, including during the all-night artillery barrage by the Japanese while he was in a foxhole on the beach. His battalion had the most casualties of any CB battalion during the war. The battalion started building airstrips before the island was declared secure.
He returned to the States on the USS Yorktown. On the deck during that long voyage, he tossed the football with fellow officer Jim Backus, later of Gilligan’s Island and Mr. Magoo fame. Ivan arrived in Chicago just in time for Christmas, 1945, and saw a daughter he had never seen, born September 1944.
After the war, housing was short. He and Rosemary and their child moved in with Rosemary’s sister, Luella, and her husband, John Morrissey, who had served as an Army Intelligence officer. By the time each couple had two children, Morrissey would talk of “4 adults, 4 kids, 4 rooms, $40 a month.”
Ivan and Rosemary lived in Chicago, Park Ridge Illinois (Hilary Clinton’s hometown), San Francisco, Dayton, Pittsburgh, and Burlington, Ontario. They raised seven children. He told me once that he wanted to ensure that each of his five daughters acquired the skills necessary to support themselves.
As a structural engineer, he built America: roads, bridges, dams, power plants, steel-making plants, and so much more. The only time he was let go from a job — in an occupation that was always subject to business cycles — he was 59. He found work within a few months with Sargent & Lundy Engineers from which he retired in 1984 at age 72.
When my wife Ann and I were living in Washington, D.C., my parents came to town for our Nation’s Bicentennial and we watched the fireworks sitting by the Iwo Jima Memorial, 31 years after the battle. In 2006, we accompanied him on his visit to the USS Yorktown in Charleston and he showed us where he had slept in the forward quarters.
Over the past 15 years, Ivan Thunder began communicating in detail about his war experience. He spoke to students at every level, including Navy ROTC students at Notre Dame in April 2007. He wrote a book about his life up to the day he landed at Iwo Jima (Her Last Letter under the pseudonym Michael Dalton) and wrote a second book about Iwo Jima and the Pacific War. Family members escorted him to a number of annual reunions since 2003 of Iwo Jima veterans.
His life extended for 41% of the life of this Republic (97 of its 234 years). A few years ago, he told me that he should never have voted for FDR, Kennedy, Johnson — because the Democrats were bringing this country to ruin.
His favorite book was Tale of Two Cities. (We were sending him a transcript of the Diane Rehm Show from last week on this book when he died.) His favorite musical was Sigmund Romberg’s The Desert Song, which he saw on stage in San Francisco in the 1920s soon after its initial production. He did not see it on stage again until I escorted him to its staging in Milwaukee in 1992.
A few years ago, I asked my father what sort of movies he liked. He replied movies about honor, truth, duty, romantic love and devotion, fidelity — and then he rattled off the names of a number of movies released over the decades, which we bought him for his birthdays and Christmases. The sort of movies he described in fact described the sort of man he was. He had shown deep and abiding devotion to his mother, to his wife (of 61 years until her death in 2004), to his children, to his fellow sailors, and to his country. He had a great fondness for California where he had spent the first 15 years of his life. I call him our family’s, and our country’s, California Redwood, tall and true.
East Texas Rancher| 11.1.10 @ 7:19AM
My condolences, sir, on the loss of your father. We are suffering a great character deficit in this nation, as we lose the giant Redwoods from the greatest generation.
My father lies in a hospital close to death. He trained the glider pilots who went in on D-Day. He said he knew he was training them for a mission that most would not come back from. And he was.
I pray that in this present generation we produce some great redwoods. I believe I see the makings of one in our son, a USAFA grad, special forces pilot, flying as his father and grandfather before him. I have hope that God will hear us pray and restore our nation, to the honor we once had.
B. Gunn
The East Texas Rancher
Alan Brooks| 11.1.10 @ 8:41PM
Funny how the greatest generation were the ones who set up the welfare state you don't like, and began the sekshuel wevolshun in the '50s. At least I think it was the '50s; it might have been earlier: my dad said during the war the first question a new dogface would ask him was:
"where's the whorehouse?"
But then, people need relief from...tension...
Nate Thompson| 11.2.10 @ 12:22AM
Wow, really classy Brooks. I would have never thought to snap to sarcasm in reaction to reading a loving tribute to your father. How about a little reverence for the passing? Yes, it's personal, Ivan's grandson is a classmate and close friend of mine- a fellow "dogface".
Mr. Thunder you have honored your father and his legacy.
Carol| 11.1.10 @ 8:11AM
Dear Mr. Thunder:
In this very short read, I feel I met your father, I feel I missed out on knowing a true American and feel like I too have lost a friend. Well written to your father and a tribute to a wonderful life. May God continue his legacy through you, your family and his life work.
C Bailey
P.Smith| 11.1.10 @ 8:13AM
It is a good thing to have a father of which you can be proud of.
SC Mike| 11.1.10 @ 8:27AM
I thank you for that wonderful recollection of a man who made this country great in so many ways.
Bonnie Sharky| 11.1.10 @ 8:42AM
My condolences as well, Mr. Thunder, and amen, East Texas Ranger, my heart goes out to you both. Heaven’s gain truly is our loss when men such as these pass from our midst.
My father is not one of that great generation of which you both speak so eloquently, but he is a great man in my eyes. He was not a military man, though he attempted to serve in the next war, in Korea. It seems no one was willing to overlook his severe asthma. His best friend did enlist…and didn’t come back. He only spoke of this to me once and the pain was evident. It struck me then that this explained something about the kind of man my father is. Upon his retirement he was asked to make a list of any volunteer work he had done over the years. That list was three pages long in my father's tiny script. I was with him three weeks ago to celebrate his 80th birthday. He had just joined a charitable organization. It seems the list is going to keep growing. We cannot all serve the way your fathers did, but we can all certainly honor that service by doing our part to make the land they protect is as great as it can possibly be. That is a lesson I learned from my father.
East Texas Ranger, your son took to the sky, mine to the sea. I look at the kind of man he has become, at his obvious love and commitment to his wife and children in addition to his dedicated service to his country, and it makes me share in your hope for this next generation.
Young people who loudly protest everything under the sun and leave a path of litter, and sometimes destruction, wherever they go have been among us now for decades. Yet there have also always been those who choose a very different path. Those who roll up their sleeves and do what they can to protect all that is good and noble and to fix what needs fixing. These are the ones who strive to leave things better than they found them. May God bless them all and may they prevail.
Anita Thunder Rotchstein| 11.1.10 @ 8:54AM
My dear brother Jim, thank you for writing this wonderful memorial piece about our beloved "dad". The words that you wrote will be passed down for generations to come. We are proud to be called his children, all 7 of us. God bless our dad and this country he so rightfully defended so his children, grand-children and great-grandchildren could live in freedom. A honest and true American he was!
Ken (Old Texican)| 11.1.10 @ 9:49AM
Jim,
My condolences.
My dad had sufferred a broken neck and shattered knee at Baylor U in 1933...playing football.
When WWII started, he quit his executive job and went out to the Shipyard here in Houston...and spent the war building "Liberty ships" as a "chipper".
(That was the guy strong enough to cut the "Vs" for the welds across the hull bottoms without lowering the "chipper hammer".)
He inhaled enough fire-proofing asbetos to kill him in his prime.
He was one of those men "strong enough to be gentle".
Where do you hear your father's laugh before walking around a corner expecting to see him still?
PJ| 11.1.10 @ 10:04AM
Thank you also for a wonderful piece! It reminded me of my father who was an 18 yr old GI Joe during the WWII, honorably discharged, married, had kids, worked 9 to 5, & died peacefully 15 yrs into retirement. -----I am sure he believed that he led an ordinary life, to me I was lucky to have an extraordinary dad like him.
As a pt teacher to 10 yr olds, I see plenty of young redwood saplings. Be patient! Redwoods take a long time to grow. (Btw, You old geezers can help by spending more time w/the young ones!)
Ed| 11.1.10 @ 10:37AM
Wonderful article! He sounds like my father, who was a lieutenant (jg) on the U.S.S. Bearss, a Fletcher class destroyer that served off Alaska in WWII. He later designed reactors for the first generation of nuclear ships in the U.S. Navy.
Their generation is passing on very quickly, and I hope that their sacrifices were not in vain. After Election Day tomorrow, I fervently hope that the Nation changes course and returns to its normal compass heading.
Robert P. Kirchhoefer| 11.1.10 @ 11:34AM
Jim,
A very touching and fitting tribute. I'm sorry I never got to meet him. My prayers are with you and your family.
Mike B| 11.1.10 @ 12:45PM
a technical correction for the 4th paragraph---Seabees or SEABEES, but never SeaBees.
Mike B, retired SEABEE
Ken (Old Texican)| 11.1.10 @ 4:08PM
Mike B,
(Smile) I was neither. I was the CEO of 2 CBs.
(Civilian Builders)
We got paid better than the SEABEES, who often helped us.
I couldn't pass the SEABEE physical.
Thank you for your service, sir.
Denis Hogan| 11.1.10 @ 1:34PM
Mr. Thunder,
Thank you for your summary of your father's life.
It is a personal example of what our people and our country is, what it asks of us, and what it has to offer.
I enjoyed reading it immensely.
Sincerely,
Denis Hogan
Faffnir| 11.1.10 @ 2:53PM
My condolences, sir.
May your father walk with G-d. He has earned it.
Yr. Obt. Svt,
Faffnir
Nunya| 11.1.10 @ 3:47PM
Mr. Thunder, and Ms Anita Thunder Rotchstein: My condolences to you and your family, may God heal your hearts from this loss.
I am sorry to have never met your father, he sounds like he was a wonderful man. Great story, very well written.
May God bless you.
zenga| 11.1.10 @ 3:49PM
That must have been hard to write. It's got to be difficult to condense a whole life, especially the life of a loved one, into such a short space. You did a superb job. Thank you for sharing.
My condolences on the loss of your father.
Mike
Philip Martin | 11.1.10 @ 4:44PM
My dad may have been one of the first to land on your dad's airfield at Iwo Jima. He was a Marine Corps transport pilot flying RD 5's, the Marines equivalent of the DC-3. His squadron was one of the first to land to bring in ammunition (mostly grenades) and evacuate the wounded. He just turned 88. Hope he lives as long as your dad.
Jim Thunder| 11.1.10 @ 7:46PM
At at least one of the reunions my father attended in recent years, there were pilots who thanked the engineers for the airfields. Some disabled planes landed on the unfinished airstrips.
Mike| 11.1.10 @ 5:17PM
My condolences to you. My grandfather passed away in 2002. He was also a Seabee. He enlisted in January of '42. I always thought that was something. That a young man would join the Navy a month after the bombing at Pearl Harbor. May God comfort you and your family in your time of loss.
Anne| 11.1.10 @ 7:48PM
Today I received an email that my friend Diane's father had died. Mr. Thunder was that man. What a moving account to read of his life, so eloquently written by a caring and perceptive son. Thank you.
Sue C| 11.2.10 @ 12:33AM
Jim,
I was very saddened at the passing of your father and my great uncle. He was a lion of a man not only in stature but in intellect and compassion. What a wonderful legacy he has left to the country he loved not just in buildings but also in the family he cherished so dearly. Thank you for sharing his story with others.
Tom Baker | 11.2.10 @ 2:32AM
Condolences Mr. Thunder on the loss of your amazing father.
We are losing these wonderful men at a tragic rate. It won't be long before they're all gone. An 87-year-old former pilot of B-24 bombers over Germany came to our history class last year and gave us a wonderful talk about what he and his contemporaries went through. We were all awed. Many high school students have no idea what this country and its young people went through in WWII.
We lost that old pilot a few months ago, and his family posted a moving tribute to him on YouTube entitled "Maurice Holmen Military Tribute." Go watch it and see if you can keep a dry eye. Here's a link:
Another great old WWII pilot, a friend of my father's (who was likewise a pilot) wrote his war memoirs and I helped him find a publisher for his manuscript. Sadly, he died before his book came out, although he had signed the contract and knew it would be made into a book. His memoir of flying combat missions against the Japanese in the Pacific is a thriller that reads like a novel. Take a look at "Above the Thunder" by Raymond C. Kerns at Amazon.com (), or better yet, buy a copy and prepare to sit up all night with a real page-turner. (Any royalties from the book will go to his widow, who did her bit during the war assembling radios in an aircraft factory).
My dad has also passed away. Mr. Thunder's short bio in the article above reminded me very much of him. No better dad ever lived. Here's a picture of him in 1945 beside one of the planes he flew:
We can never repay our debt to these men and women of the "greatest generation," but we should certainly seek out and thank those few who remain.
Tom Baker | 11.2.10 @ 2:36AM
Looks like the webmaster removed my links above, but you can find the pages if you like by using their names. My dad's picture is on a page titled "Donald Baker In Memoriam."
Don Pausback| 11.2.10 @ 10:05AM
Jim, this was a great account of your Dad. I was lucky enough to know him, since we were down-the-street neighbors. I remember him as being tall and mighty, like your Redwood reference, but with a kind and gentle manner that was welcoming and warm. I wish you and Anita and your other siblings that same warmth in knowing he's reunited with your Mom and enjoying his own rewards. Our heartfelt sympathies, Don
Richard L. von Luhrte | 12.1.10 @ 6:32PM
I found about Ivan's passing from his daughter Rosemary just the other day. We played together as kids, and grew up together in Edison Park and Park Ridge Illinois. Our parents were dear friends, and we spent many a Thanksgiving or Christmas together. It is amazing how as a child we have no idea of the lives our parents led during the war, the depression, and growing up in poverty. We just assumed that they were just our parents. In reading this wonderful article, I am truly amazed and humbled by his accomplishments, his background, and his dedication to our country and to his family. I knew everyone in the family would be succesful, but the story just confirms the great gene pool that was passed down to the current generation. I have not heard from the Thunders for over 40 years. We each moved in our own directions. My parents departed in the late 1980's, with my father relaying similar stories of hardship and sacrafice. I only wish our current generation could understand the values our parents took with them. Thank you for the article and for making contact with me. It is wonderful hearing of the successes of the family, and the history of a man we all knew so well, and yet, we really did not know at all. Truly amazing!
Fr Francis de Rosa| 12.25.10 @ 1:55AM
Here is eulogy to inspire a disoriented generation that is squandering the cultural capital built up by its forefathers. Since my own father went to his reward 5 years ago Dec. 27th at age 86, as my sister put it so well, "the world looks different now." I might add, "worse."
Permit me to add one more tribute to Jim Thunder's dear old dad (I know the latter but the former only through him): he left the nation a son of high character and noble ideals...
Mary Ann Kreitzer | 4.21.11 @ 1:18PM
What a lovely testament to your dad, Jim. Mine was born in 1917 and was Pearl Harbor survivor. What examples of courage and fortitude the men and women of that generation were. May we never forget them!