Richard Pervin

Richard Pervin was born to Max Pervin and Golda (Florian) in Toledo OH, June 6, 1926.  He was in a devastating bus crash which caused him to have a permanent limp.  He took up the fight in WWII and enlisted in the Navy, June 1944, as soon as he turned 18.  He was trained at the Naval Training Center Great Lakes, Illinois and quickly went to photography/radio school in Madison Wisconsin.  He was deployed on the Buckley Class Destroyer Escort Ship – USS William T Powell.  As Radio Operator for the ship, he monitored radio transmissions.  The Destroyer was credited with keeping UGS-48 Carrier Convoy safe on its trip to the Mediterranean destination where it was tasked with firing on enemy bombers upon radio warning from Algiers Command station.    Towards the end of the war, working with Escort Group 32, she performed anti-submarine hunter-killer group and support duties in the western approaches to the United Kingdom.  During the closing weeks of the war, she patrolled shallow water approaches, sank floating and drifting mines, and supported the escorts for 12 convoys in submarine infested waters.  The USS William T Powell, then took on the task for accepting German U-boat surrenders after Germany capitulated.  The Destroyer ship was then homeward bound where she landed in Houston TX and was converted to a radar packet ship on task to join the Pacific Theater.  But Japan capitulated before she could return to service.    Richard was awarded the American Theater Ribbon, Victory Medal, and European Theater Ribbon.  After returning to his home in Toledo, he accepted a job at a TV station in Houston.  He continued his photography business and met the love of his life Jo Barnes.  He worked for the Houston Chronicle and various independent jobs as photographer.  He longed to be a farmer and bought a farm close to his wife’s sister, Faye Long, in Stilwell, OK.  He was a chicken farmer and participated in a world-wide network of ex-military Ham Radio Operators.  He monitored the Red Cross Radio for disasters around the US and helped inform families of evacuee dispositions.  He was a volunteer for several Volunteer fire stations, and the VA Hospital right up until his death in 2001.