Mr. Wm. Rahlfs, Jr. lost his life in a boating accident on the Pacific Ocean on July 6th. On Sunday, July 20th memorial services will be held for him at the First Baptist Church in Blair at 3 p.m.
Mr. Rahlfs was born to Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Rahlfs, Sr., on July 10, 1944. He graduated from Blair High School in 1962 and was employed at the Gaydou-Brown Hatchery during that summer. In December he joined the Navy and this has been his career for the last 12 ½ years. He was stationed in Australia for three years and also served in the states of Washington and California.
He had just returned from six months duty in Subic Bay in the western Pacific and he, with his son, Donald, and uncle, Wm. Robinson were on a fishing trip in a bay near Eureka, California. They all lost their lives when their boat capsized. The Coast Guard will continue to watch for his body, which has not been found at the present time.
He is survived by his wife, Judith, daughters Mary age 9, Jodi age 6 and a son Erik, age 15 months. Also surviving are his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Rahlfs, Sr., two brothers, Henry of North Bend and Francis of Blair, and his grandfather, Lewis Robinson of Blair.
Enterprise 26 Sept 1968
Wm. Rahlfs, Jr. Now Stationed In Australia
Electronics Technician First Class William H. Rahlfs, Jr., USN, 23, son of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Rahlfs of Blair, and husband of the former Miss Gertrude S. Cohen of Albuquerque, N.M., participated in the re-naming ceremonies of the U.S. Naval Communication Station, Harold E. Holt at North west Cape, Western Australia.
The station was re-named in honor of the late Prime Minister Harold E. Holt. When the station was originally commissioned last year, Prime Minister Holt and the U.S. Ambassador cut the commissioning ribbon that officially put Naval communications in Australia.
Four hundred U. S. Navy men and civilians and more than 300 Australians work together to operate the station, located on a peninsula known as North West Cape approximately 800 miles north of Perth in Western Australia.
The station’s mission is to maintain reliable communications with units of the U. S. Pacific Fleet operating in the oceans of the world.
~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~
