Goolrick, Robert Emmett

Goolrick, Robert Emmett

Goolrick

Robert Emmett

Goolrick was born into a longtime residential family in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI) and graduated with a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering in 1907. While attending VPI, he was Vice-President of German Club, President of German Club, a member of the Historian Rappahannock Valley Club, and Secretary and Treasurer of the Rappahannock Valley Club. He played on the baseball team from 1904 to 1905 and on the football team from 1905 to 1906 (Bugle). There was a remark made of him in the yearbook that states, “Bob was famous for his good looks, Took better with girls than with his books.” Goolrick was popular, attractive, and well-liked by his peers. He was married at the age of 40, according to the 1930 Census.

"Bob"

Fredericksburg, Virginia

Virginia

9 June 1886 (1900 Census)

Fredericksburg, Virginia

13 November 1946 (Public Family Tree)

Heart attack while at dinner with his wife. (Public Family Tree)

Biloxi, Harrison, Mississippi, USA (U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Forms)

John Tackett Goolrick and Frances Seymour White (1900 Census)

Charles O’Conor Goolrick, John Tackett Goolrick Jr., Chester Bernard Goolrick Sr. (Public Family Tree)

Marjorie Lilian Craig (Public Family Tree)

None

1907

Electrical Engineering

Yes

Army

First Lieutenant (Coastal Artillery Corps), Major, and Colonel

Retired as a Colonel in the Air Service Corps

Robert E. Goolrick, as of the 1910 census, was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Was stationed at San Francisco, Letter Gen. Hospital from 1915-1916 (U.S., Returns from Military Posts). Around 1915-1916, R.E. Goolrick was accounted as “absent” on a Return from Military Post spreadsheet and accounted for as a “loss” on another. The reasoning behind this listing is unknown. After the First World War, in the year 1921, Goolrick graduated Air Service Pilot School (U.S., Select Military Registers, 1862-1985). According to the 1930 Census, Goolrick’s occupation was that of a U.S. Army Officer. In 1943 during the Second World War, Goolrick was a commanding Colonel at the Technical School and Basic Training Center No. 2 for Army Air Forces Eastern Technical Training Command in Keesler Field, Mississippi. This information is found in a correspondence he sent to Jewish Personnel at the school discussing the observation of a Jewish holiday. He is documented on an army death certificate to have enlisted in the Air Force on September 19, 1944, although there is a marking which crosses that year out and writes a correction above it which is illegible. Goolrick was a Christian and at the time of his death in 1946, a Latin Cross was selected to mark his grave (U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Forms).

French Croix de Gurre with Bronze Star

• Citation: "Successfully under the command of Captain Goolrick and two toher offiers, this unit [Captain Goolrick, Headquarters Supply Co. 1st Anti-Aircraft Battalion] occupied for several moths a position that was frequently fired upon by the enemy artillery. It courageously endured numerous heavy caliber bombardments and never ceased to fulfill its mission." - pg. 62 Virginians of Distinguished Service of the World War, published by the Virginia War History Commission, 1923
  
  
  

Unknown

Goolrick continued to work with the United States Army until the time of his death in 1946.

The Goolrick family is one which hails from Fredericksburg, Virginia. In 1869, the Goolrick family opened a drugstore which sold not only pharmaceutical needs but also various food goods. As time has gone on, this institution has become an iconic part of the Downtown Fredericksburg landscape and remains open to this day, rocking its vintage décor and transporting its visitors back into a different era.

Cameron Brown