Robert Palmer

Assistant to the Meteorologist

Supply Officer

East Base

 

 

 

Biography:

One of Robert Palmer’s responsibilities as USAS supply officer was to accompany the prefabricated building components, built in Florida, to their temporary storage location in Valparaiso, Chile, until the USMS North Star was able to sail to South America after offloading personnel, supplies, and equipment at both USAS bases.  Upon the ship’s arrival at Valparaiso, the prefab building components and the Curtiss-Condor aircraft, which had been accompanied by Howard Odom, were loaded and delivered to East Base. In addition to Palmer’s responsibilities as supply officer, he was the assistant to Herbert G. Dorsey, Jr., meteorologist, East Base.  See the links for Herbert Dorsey paper.

 

Palmer was born on March 24, 1916, in Providence, Rhode Island, to Lindley Guy Palmer and Luella Hill Palmer. The family moved to Cincinnati, where Palmer eventually attended the University of Cincinnati.

 

Shortly after Palmer’s arrival at East Base, he was informed by radio that his fiancé had married another man two weeks previously.  In 1942, Palmer married Dorothy Ellen Bauer.  In July of the same year he was commissioned into the USNR as an ensign. In 1944, Palmer graduated with a degree in meteorology from the United States Naval Academy’s post graduate school.  During World War II, Palmer flew over the Hump and also served in the Atlantic theater.    

 

After the war, Palmer lived and worked in Lake Forest, Illinois, for thirty years, and retired to Naples, Florida.  Robert Palmer died on June 10, 2003.

 

Antarctic Service Medal Gold

 

Geographical Feature: Palmer Inlet

 

Contributions:  The Mountain Weather Station

 

Photos

 

Films/Videos:

 

Full Photo/Films/Video Library:

 

Links:               “ An Antarctic Mountain Weather Station”, Lieutenant H.G. Dorsey, Jr., U.S. Army,

                           Proceedings of The American Philosophical Society, vol. 89, Part 1, 1945

 

 

This page is still under contruction.  If you have any material, please contact Laura or John at the following email address  webmaster@usas1939.org

 

 

Thank you.

 

Updated: May 15, 2011