On April 30, 1957, Claude L. Willis, Chief Quartermaster on the STIRNI, retired after over 35 years’s service in the Coast Survey. He was born in 1896 at Smyrna, North Carolina, served in World War I as a seaman in the Navy, and enlisted as Seaman AB aboard the Ship BACHE in 1921. Before his assignment as Quartermaster 1/C on the Ship LYDONIA in 1929, Claude also served on the HYDROGRAPHER. In 1947 he transferred to the STIRNI as Chief Quartermaster.

The Coast and Geodetic Survey awarded the Defense Service Ribbon, Atlantic War Zone Ribbon, and Good Conduct Ribbon to Claude in 1946. He and Mrs. Willis are now living in the Norfolk, Virginia, area.

In: “Personnel Panorama,” June 1957. P. 3.