| Frederick C. Eaton and Vera V. Eaton | |
| Fred Eaton was born in Warren, Pennsylvania, in April 1908 and spent all his years through high school in Warren. He entered Allegheny College in Meadville, PA, in September of 1924 graduating with a B.S. in Chemistry in 1928. In 1929 he began postgraduate studies at MIT and received his Master's in Chemical Engineering Practice in June 1931. | |
| Fred was born into the oil industry (his father managed a small refinery in Warren, and the family even had a few wells on their property that didn't produce a whole lot of crude). During the tough times of the 1930's Fred had a series of jobs like dismantling an old refinery, teaching a college night course in oil refining, and operating a cracking unit at a refining company in Eldred, PA. Finally, in January of 1935, he became a caseworker for the Pennsylvania State Emergency Relief Board. He had a few interesting stories about that period in his life. | |
| Then after a brief stint again as a chemist at Pure Oil in Illinois, he got an offer from Standard Oil of New Jersey to go to Aruba. He signed an 18-month contract and departed for Aruba as a chemist in December of 1935--salary was $175 per month. | |
| On his first furlough in 1937, he proposed to Vera Van Arsdale from Castile, New York, whom he had known for at least 11 years. She was a kindergarten teacher who had graduated from Oberlin Kindergarten Training School at Oberlin College in Ohio. Vera and her parents sailed on a tanker from Boston at the beginning of February 1938. The tanker docked in Aruba on February 9, and Vera and Fred were married at the home of Dr. James and Katherine Reid on Feb. 10th. Their first bungalow was #212. | |
| Daughter Alice was born in Aruba in May 1939, and daughter Susan in November 1941. When the submarine attacked Aruba in February of 1942, the Eatons were living in bungalow #12 on the water so close to the refinery that it was eventually torn down to build Lago's second power plant. Fred always had stories about that night--knocking out street lights, gathering at the church, and so on. In 1942, the family went on its regular vacation to the States, and Vera and the girls didn't return until late 1943. Children weren't allowed to return until the greatest danger was over. | |
| The Eatons moved to Bungalow #416 and remained there until Fred retired in 1964. Close neighbors were the Rosboroughs, Schoonmakers, Dalys, Chapmans, Wileys, Robys, and a number of others who changed over the years. | |
| In 1948, Fred was put in charge of the "knock" (or octane testing) lab, where he remained for ten years. At that point, he was assigned to special instrumentation, charged with researching and then installing chromatographs for chromatographic analyses. | |
| Perhaps the Eatons, especially Fred, are best remembered for all the other activities they enjoyed. Fred was active on the School Board, active in the church (among other things, he fixed and maintained the church organ) and, of course, he fixed radios and record players (in his garage) for so many colony residents. Vera taught Sunday School and Girl Scouts. Some of you readers may remember how many Canteen dances they chaperoned. | |
| Fred and Vera retired to Winter Haven, FL, in August 1964. In 1992, they moved to Peoria, IL, where they lived close to daughter Alice and her husband, Kyle Spitzer (also, of course, raised in Aruba). Fred died in April 1995 and Vera in July 1995. | |
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