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Fredric G. 'Fred' Hargesheimer Grass Valley, CA QCWA # 4375 |
Name: Frederic Grant Hargesheimer
Last Residence: Lincoln, Nebraska
BORN: 7 May 1916
Died: 23 Dec 2010
See: https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp-stories/loc.natlib.afc2001001.56930/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hargesheimer
WWII pilot who forever repaid rescuers dies at 94
By TIMBERLY ROSS and CHARLES HANLEY, Associated Press Timberly Ross And Charles Hanley, Associated Press
LINCOLN, Nebraska . Fred Hargesheimer, aa World War II Army pilot whose rescue by Pacific islanders led to a life of giving back as a builder of schools and teacher of children, died Thursday morning. He was 94. Richard Hargesheimer said his father had been suffering from poor health and passed away in Lincoln.
On June 5, 1943, Hargesheimer, a P-38 pilot with the 8th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, was shot down by a Japanese fighter while on a mission over the Japanese-held island of New Britain in the southwest Pacific. He parachuted into the trackless jungle, where he barely survived for 31 days until found by local hunters.
They took him to their coastal village and for seven months hid him from Japanese patrols, fed him and nursed him back to health from two illnesses. In February 1944, with the help of Australian commandos working behind Japanese lines, he was picked up by a U.S. submarine off a New Britain beach.
After returning to the U.S. following the war, Hargesheimer got married and began a sales career with a Minnesota forerunner of computer maker Sperry Rand, his lifelong employer. But he said he couldn't forget the Nakanai people, who he considered his saviors.
The more he thought about it, he later said, "the more I realized what a debt I had to try to repay."
After revisiting the village of Ea Ea in 1960, he came home, raised $15,000 over three years, "most of it $5 and $10 gifts," and then returned with 17-year-old son Richard in 1963 to contract for the building of the villagers' first school.
In the decades to come, Hargesheimer's U.S. fundraising and determination built a clinic, another school and libraries in Ea Ea, renamed Nantabu, and surrounding villages.
In 1970, their three children grown, Hargesheimer and his late wife, Dorothy, moved to New Britain, today an out-island of the nation of Papua New Guinea, and taught the village children themselves for four years. The Nantabu school's experimental plot of oil palm even helped create a local economy, a large plantation with jobs for impoverished villagers.
On his last visit, in 2006, Hargesheimer was helicoptered into the jungle and carried in a chair by Nakanai men to view the newly found wreckage of his World War II plane. Six years earlier, on another visit, he was proclaimed "Suara Auru," "Chief Warrior" of the Nakanai.
"The people were very happy. They'll always remember what Mr. Fred Hargesheimer has done for our people," said Ismael Saua, 69, a former teacher at the Nantabu school.
"These people were responsible for saving my life," Hargesheimer told The Associated Press in a 2008 interview. "How could I ever repay it?"
Besides Richard, of Lincoln, Hargesheimer, a Rochester, Minnesota, native, is survived by another son, Eric, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and a daughter, Carol, of Woodbury, Minnesota; by a sister, Mary Louise Gibson of Grass Valley, California; and by eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Richard Hargesheimer said no services are planned.
The Diary of the 8th Photo Squadron New Guinea - Saturday, June 5th 1943
Once again we face an empty chair as word comes from Dobodura that Lt. Frederic Hargesheimer has been missing since 1700 o'clock this evening. Our finest reconnaissance pilot and one of the mainstays around which this squadron has been built, he will be sorely missed, first . as onne of our finest friends and second . for the work and talent of whiich he was so unsparing.
Hargey was flying the coastline recco of New Britain and his last radio message placed him at open Bay. Men have come out of that area before and will again. If there is the slightest chance, Hargey is a good bet to make it. It is our fervent hope and prayer that such is the case.
http://www.fredhargesheimer.com
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Obituary from JournalStar.com (Lincoln, Nebraska)
Frederic G. Hargesheimer, 94, died December 23, 2010 in Lincoln. Formerly of Grass Valley, Calif., he was born in 1916 to Oscar and Lucy (Durkee) Hargesheimer in Rochester, Minn. A WWII P-38 reconnaissance pilot, he was shot down over New Britain, now a province of Papua New Guinea (PNG), on his 49th mission in 1943. Alone for 31 days, he was found by local villagers who, over the next six months, hid him from Japanese patrols and nursed him back to health, after which he spent three months with Australian coast watchers before departing on a submarine for the U.S. In 1960 he returned to PNG to thank those who saved his life and, subsequently, built two schools and a health clinic through the Airmen's Memorial Foundation to thank the Nakanai people of PNG for saving his life. On a visit to PNG in 2000, in a formal ceremony that included thousands of participants, the Nakanai people made him a Chief Warrior, Suara Aura. He spent the last two months in hospice care at the home of his son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Christy.
Sleep well, sweet prince.
Survivors include one sister, Mary Louise Gibson of Grass Valley, Calif.; three children, Richard of Lincoln, and Eric and Carol of St. Paul, Minn.; eight grandchildren; and ten great grandchildren.
No services. Memorials may be made to Health Connect at Home, Hospice Care, St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, Lincoln, NE. Aspen Cremation & Burial Service, Lincoln.
