Quentin Roosevelt II

Quentin Roosevelt II (November 4, 1919-December 21, 1948) was the fourth child of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. and Eleanor Alexander Roosevelt. He was the namesake of his uncle Quentin Roosevelt who was killed in action during World War I in 1918. Quentin II graduated from Harvard University in 1941 and soon after joined the Army. He was wounded at the Battle of Kasserine Pass in February, 1943 and was a recipient of the Purple Heart, Croix de Guerre and Silver Star. While serving as the Director of the China National Aviation Corporation, Quentin II was killed in a plane crash near Hong Kong on December 21, 1948. With Hong Kong harbor socked in with with fog down right down to the ocean surface, Roosevelt's plane missed clearing the a mountain on Basalt Island in Hong Harbor by only fifteen feet when the nose of the aircraft and tip of the wing struck the crest of the peak catapulting the plane over top of the mountain where it rolled down the opposing side and burst into flames. All on board were killed instantly. Originally, in keeping with the Roosevelt Family tradition that a Roosevelt is buried where he/she falls, he was to be buried at the site of the crash. His body, however was returned to the United States and was buried at Youngs Cemetery in Oyster Bay, New York. [citation
url = http://www.cnac.org/accident015.htm
title=Crash of Airplane carrying Quentin Roosevelt II on December 21, 1948
publisher=www.cnac.org
chapter=Circumstances of the Crash on Balsalt Island, Flight originated in Shanghai
accessdate = 2008-09-30 ]

Quentin was not the son of the first Quentin Roosevelt who was Theodore Roosevelt's youngest son, and the family never used the name Quentin II, although it does appear on the memorial stone in the Roosevelt section of the Long Island cemetery at Oyster Bay. It is retained there reluctantly to facilitate separating the two Quentins.

Quentin Roosevelt II had much in common with his uncle and namesake. Both were promising young men who served their country in war and who died young in plane crashes.

Quentin published a paper through the American Museum of Natural History in 1934, describing a new species of fossil pronghorn antelope that he and a boyhood friend, Joseph W. Burden, had found in a cave in southern Arizona. Quentin attended Harvard University, where he wrote his senior thesis on some Chinese manuscripts he had collected while visiting that country.

Quentin Roosevelt II’s daughter Susan Roosevelt Weld was married to former Massachusetts Governor William Weld.

Another daughter, Anna C. Roosevelt, is a noted archaeologist specializing in Amazonia.

Notes

References

* Associated Press, [http://www.cnac.org/roosevelt01.htm "Quentin Roosevelt Killed In Plane Crash"] (December 22, 1948) "New York Times", p.8.

External links

* [http://www.exploresaikung.com/people/Roosevelt.html Hong Kong's Roosevelt Connection - Basalt Island's Air Crash]
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799654,00.html?promoid=googlep Time. Monday, Jan. 03, 1949]