Quentin Roosevelt II

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Quentin Roosevelt II (November 4, 1919-December 21, 1948) was the fourth child of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. and Eleanor Alexander Roosevelt. He was the namesake of his uncle Quentin Roosevelt who was killed in action during World War I in 1918. Quentin II graduated from Harvard University in 1941 and soon after joined the Army. He was wounded at the Battle of Kasserine Pass in February, 1943 and was a recipient of the Purple Heart, Croix de Guerre and Silver Star. While serving as the Director of the China National Aviation Corporation, Quentin II was killed in a plane crash near Hong Kong on December 21, 1948.[1] Note: Quentin was not the son of the first Quentin, and the family never used the name Quentin II. It is retained here reluctantly to facilitate separating the two Quentins.

Quentin Roosevelt II had much in common with his namesake. Both were promising young men who served their country in war and who died young in plane crashes.

Quentin published a paper through the American Museum of Natural History in 1934, describing a new species of fossil pronghorn antelope that he and a boyhood friend, Joseph W. Burden, had found in a cave in southern Arizona. Quentin attended Harvard University, where he wrote his senior thesis on some Chinese manuscripts he had collected while visiting that country.

Quentin Roosevelt II’s daughter Susan Roosevelt Weld was married to former Massachusetts Governor William Weld.

Another daughter, Anna C. Roosevelt, is a noted archaeologist specializing in Amazonia.

[edit] References

• Associated Press, "Quentin Roosevelt Killed In Plane Crash" (December 22, 1948) New York Times, p.8.