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The Martha's Vineyard Times is a weekly publication.
December 30 - January 5, 2004 Edition
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OBITUARIES December 30, 2004 Edward Krikorian's wartime heroism remembered Edward Krikorian Jr. Edward Krikorian of Oak Bluffs was a young Navy man from New Jersey stationed at the Martha’s Vineyard Naval Air Station on a fateful day in January 17, 1944 when two Navy men, Richard J. Holden, 21, of Fall River, water tender first class, and William J. Ping, 27, of Detroit, seaman second class lost their lives in the service of their country. According to the headline of a story in the Vineyard Gazette published on Jan. 21, 1944, two men died from “gas fumes” in a tank at the air facility. The story, based on the “reports of survivors and eye witnesses,” said that at approximately 4 pm Monday, Donald Goodwin, aviation machinist mate third class, and Richard Holden volunteered to enter and measure the interior dimensions of a large, underground, 72-octane gasoline storage tank containing only fumes. Wearing gas masks that made it difficult to negotiate, the tank’s ladder was removed and the men were lowered inside the tank by rope. Once in the tank, Mr. Goodwin immediately felt faint and believed that his mask was leaking. Still attached by rope, he walked to the center of the tank and motioned to Mr. Holden who was not attached to a rope that he was going to be pulled up. The men above ground pulled up Mr. Goodwin but saw that Mr. Holden had collapsed. Without a mask or a rope, William Ping, one of 12 children, jumped down into the tank and managed to pick up his stricken friend and shipmate and carry him back to the center of the tank. He tried to lift the unconscious man up to the outstretched arms of the men still above ground. But overcome by the fumes, Mr. Ping collapsed and Mr. Holden fell back on top of him. Michael Smith of Detroit, seaman second class, jumped into the tank without a rope or mask. He, too, was overcome by the fumes but managed to be pulled back to safety. He was followed by Edward Krikorian, who tied a rope around himself and donned a gas mask. Before he collapsed, Mr. Krikorian had managed to find Mr. Holden. He and the lifeless body were pulled from the tank. After that Maurice Label, also with a gas mask and rope tied around his waist, dropped into the tank to try and recover Mr. Ping, but he was quickly affected by the fumes and pulled back to safety. While newspaper accounts of that day differ, the selflessness of the men involved was never in dispute. In the Navy’s official finding of facts it was noted that: “Ping, Smith, Krikorian and Label displayed commendable courage and disregard for their personal safety in attempting to rescue shipmates in distress.” In a letter written to Mr. Krikorian dated March 4, 1980, William Holden, the oldest of the Holden brothers, wrote to say he had received a copy of the letter Mr. Krikorian sent to Mr. Goodwin, in which he described that fateful day. William Holden said that until he read the letter, neither he nor any members of the family had known about the fluid level in the tank or how his brother’s body was removed. “Our parents,” he wrote, “never wanted to know or at least they never wanted to discuss the details. Some things do hurt too much.” Mr. Holden, a retired Navy captain, added, “With one exception, it seems that everything about the incident was stupid and wasteful of human life. The glowing exception is your apparent bravery and concern for fellow men. You used your head in putting that line around you and you used your heart and risked your own life in a vain attempt to save a shipmate.” Mr. Holden said he told his parents, then past 80 years of age, about the letter but did not show it to them because they were “still able to become very emotional about their oldest son lost so long ago.” “However,” he told Ed Krikorian, “I wrote your name on a slip of paper and handed it to my mother, saying, ‘Mom, you might want to remember this man in your prayers. He is the man who got your son out of the tank. Ending the letter he wrote, “Edward Krikorian, Jr., you can be sure that you will be remembered in the daily prayers of Agnes C. Holden for the rest of her life.” Mrs. Krikorian said that she and her husband never drove by the Fall River church where the funeral took place without thinking of that time or the Holden’s grief. A simple plaque affixed to a rock in front of the new Martha’s Vineyard Airport was dedicated in September, 1999 in memory of the men who lost their lives and the bravery of others. Edward Krikorian Jr. Edward Krikorian Jr. of Oak Bluffs died Dec.15 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was born in Paterson, N.J., on Feb. 4, 1925, the son of Anna Moore Krikorian and Edward Krikorian Sr. He joined the United States Navy during World War II in 1942 and was in the Navy for four years. Part of that time he was stationed at Martha’s Vineyard Naval Air Station. He also spent better than two years aboard a destroyer, the U.S.S. Harry E. Hubbard, DD-748, in the Pacific. Eddie was responsible for the plaque installed at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport commemorating Richard Holden and William Ping, who lost their lives while serving their country in 1944. While on Martha’s Vineyard he met and married Gloria Smith Rogers in 1943, and they had three children. He was an entrepreneur of sorts. He owned a commercial fishing vessel and a shoe store, bought and renovated The Lamp Post, built the present day Ocean View Restaurant, and his last and most successful venture was Island Wide Realty, which he owned for 20 years and which is presently a Century 21 office. He was an avid sports fan, who loved playing and watching. He started the first football team on Martha’s Vineyard, which grew into a semi-pro football team. He was a familiar sight walking his beloved American Eskimo dog, Kodi, around his home on Lagoon Road. He was a man with a positive attitude and a wonderful sense of humor who will be sadly missed by his family and friends. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Shirley Krikorian; his 98-year-old mother, a resident at Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; a son, Edward Krikorian III of Florence, Ore.; two daughters, Lynn Watkins and her husband, Walter, of Morongo Valley, Calif., and Ann Chook and her husband, David, of Palm Desert, Calif.; six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren; two nephews, John and Edward Niemic, and a niece, Patricia Duncan. Also he has two aunts and several cousins living in New Jersey. He was predeceased by his sister, Lucille Niemic. A funeral mass was celebrated in Our Lady Star of the Sea Church on Dec. 18 by Father Michael Nagle, and interment was in Oak Grove Cemetery in Oak Bluffs with military honors provided by the Veterans of Martha’s Vineyard. Donations may be made in his memory to a charity of one’s choice. Arrangements are under the care of the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home, Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road, Oak Bluffs. Visit www.ccgfuneralhome.com for online guest book and information. Mary F. Bertocci Mary F. Bertocci Mary F. Gutekunst Bertocci of Norway, Maine, died Dec. 20 at Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Oak Bluffs, where she had been a resident since February of this year. She was 90. She was the daughter of James and Edith (Tweedie) Freeman and was born in Norton on April 19, 1914. She lived in Norton and graduated from Wheaton College. She met George Gutekunst at the Garrett Theology Seminary School at Northwestern University, and they married in 1942. They had three sons, who traveled with them while George was a Methodist minister with charges in Minnesota, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. Mary was a nursery school teacher in between the moving. Her husband, George died in 1976. In 1981 she married Angelo Bertocci and lived in Wolcott, Vt., with him until the time of his death in 2001 and then moved to Norway, Maine. She was fond of music and played the piano and organ and was the organist for churches in Vermont and Maine for over 20 years. She is survived by her three sons, Stephen Gutekunst of Oak Bluffs, James Gutekunst and Philip Gutekunst both of Norway, Maine; three grandchildren, Jason, Kate and Rachel Gutekunst. Her memorial service will be held in the Deering Memorial United Methodist Church at Main and Church St., PO Box 356, in South Paris, Maine, on Saturday, Jan. 8, at 1 pm. Donations may be made in her memory to that church. Arrangements are under the care of Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home, Oak Bluffs, 508-693-1495. For more information or online guest book visit www.ccgfuneralhome.com.

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