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According to Edward Rembert's NASM biographical folder (cited, left sidebar), he was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in 1923. After graduating, he spent the obligatory two years at sea. He was assigned to flight training and received the rating of Naval Aviator, accumulating 900 hours of flight time by 1929.
Edward Rembert, Ca. 1923 (Source: Web)
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It does not appear that he stayed with the Navy. In 1929 he joined the Great Lakes Aircraft Corporation of Cleveland, OH. He held the post of assistant to the president, Colonel Benjamin F. Castle. At the link is a story written by fellow Cadets in 1923 at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.
The photo, right, also appears at the link and originally appeared on page 63 of the United States Naval Academy Lucky Bag Yearbook, class of 1923. His birth date was December 31, 1901 (at least one other Web source cites his birth year as 1902) and his date of passing was October 14, 1982 at Evanston, IL. At some point he married Mable McNeill and had two daughters.
Rembert landed twice a Tucson. His first visit was on Wednesday, September 17, 1930. Based at Cleveland, OH, he was solo westbound from Cleveland to Los Angeles, CA. He flew the Great Lakes NC432Y (a model 2T1A, S/N 149).
The following year, on Tuesday, June 9, 1931, he arrived carrying one unidentified passenger in the Great Lakes NC309Y (another model 2T1A, S/N 196). Still based at Cleveland, they were westbound again, this time to San Diego, CA. No reasons were given for either flight. They could have been ferry or delivery flights to new owners on the west coast.
Rembert was born in 1902. I have no information about his life during the rest of the 1930s, or during WWII. In 1946 he took a job with U.S. Gypsum Company. The following anecdote about his contributions to the company follows. It was an answer to a question posed by a blog reader. I include the text here, because I'm not sure how long it will be available online.
About 60 years ago a very bright Exec. V.P. of the U S Gypsum company, an Annapolis grad, and one of the earliest US Naval aviators, looked out his headquarters office window in Chicago and spotted an old Lakes self unloader. Instantly inspired, he saw it as a perfect tool for hauling crude gypsum rock from the company's Nova Scotia quarries where it had historically been shipped from Hantsport, on the Minas Basin in the Bay of Fundy, best known for its 50+ feet tides to the company's 10 wallboard plants from Texas to Boston.
With WWII just ended, the United States Steel Corp's big shipyard at Kearny New Jersey needed orders if it was to survive.(It didn't for long) Ed Rembert arranged to have 4 10,000 ton belt conveyor self unloaders built at very favorable prices. They emerged as the Gypsum King, Gypsum Queen, Gypsum Dutchess, and Gypsum Prince(?). Nearly the hull size of the WWII Libertys, but instead of 2800 "up and Down" horsepower burning 28 tons of fuel per day for 10.5 knots, these new vessels had efficient little 4500 HP turbines burning 17 tons/day.
Year after year they loaded hundreds of cargoes at Hantsport. They developed an amazing safety record scooting into Hantsport on a flood tide they moored to a dock that was bone dry at low tide and quickly flooded to float the Gypsum Transportation ships with 11000 tons of rock on 25 1/2ft. draft. The ships loaded in 3 1/2 hours and were gone before the berth again became dry land.
In 1960 when the Kearney ships were already 13 years old, Gypsum went to France to order an identical 5th sister, Gypsum Countess. About 12 years later some staff were so pleased with the great success of the earlier ships they were ready to order 2 more, but wiser heads prompted the company to seek larger, faster ships that could still slip into Hantsport. Thus a new 18000 ton Gypsum King and Gypsum Baron came to be built at Collingwood where the yard knew how to build fine self unloaders. It is that 2nd Gypsum King that you noted being scrapped. The US Gypsum fleet were among the very best maintained ships one could ever hope to see.Gypsum and Concordia in Sweden kept their ships like yachts. |
Rembert passed away in 1982 and his obituary, below, appeared in the Chicago Tribune (IL), October 15, 1982.
| Edward Rembert, 80, executive vice president of the United States Gypsum Co., died Thursday in Evanston Hospital. Mr. Rembert, of Wilmette, had been employed by United States Gypsum, 101 S. Wacker Dr., for 49 years. He had been an officer since 1946, a member of the board of directors since 1949 and executive vice president since 1965. As a board member, he also served on the executive committee. He is survived by his wife, Mabel; two daughters, Judith Friskey and Ann Susan Haake; and four grandchildren. |
Rembert's NASM biographical folder was very sparse, with just a single page of information regarding his attendance at the Naval Academy. Likewise, his Web presence is limited to a small amount of genealogical information. If you have information to share about pilot Rembert, please contact me at the link at the top of the right sidebar.
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Dossier 2.1.138
THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 10/17/11 REVISED: 09/07/15, 09/12/15
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