Lt. Clarence R. Copeland
United States Navy (1942-1945)

Clarence Raymond Copeland was born on January 27, 1922 to parents Lois M. and Dr. Raymond S. Copeland of 1135 Creedmoor Avenue. Clarence had two sisters, Ruth and Lois, and a brother, William. Doctor Copeland, his father, was Pastor at the Brookline Boulevard United Presbyterian Church.

Clarence, a graduate of South Hills High School, attended Muskingham College in New Concord, Ohio. He also worked at Curtis-Wright in Beaver during the summer months. Clarence left school in May 1942 to enlist in the Navy. He began flight school in August. After graduation he received his commission and was assigned to the South Pacific. His brother William also joined the national call to arms, enlisting in the Army.

Not much is known about Lt. Clarence Copeland's time in the service. On February 5, 1945, while on maneuvers, he was killed in a mid-air collision and lost at sea. His death was listed on February 16 in the daily casualty report printed by the Pittsburgh Press and a Gold Star appeared in the window of Pastor Copeland's home at 1135 Creedmoor Avenue.

Lt. Clarence R. Copeland of Brookline is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, located in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, Metro Manila. Two other fallen Brookliners lost at sea, John P. Reitmeyer and Frank P. Dornetto, are also listed on the Tablets of the Missing in Manila.

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Clarence's brother William M. Copeland was employed by the Gulf Oil Corporation in downtown Pittsburgh when he followed his brother into the service, enlisting in the Army on June 18, 1943. William graduated from Officer's Candidate School at Fort Belvoir, Virginia on November, 1944 and left the United States for the battlefields in Europe on February 3, 1945, two days before his brother's fatal air crash in the South Pacific.

Lt. William Copeland was reported as wounded in action in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph on May 2, 1945. He spent his remaining time overseas in a military hospital. He returned to the United States on March 2, 1946 and was discharged from the Thomas M. England General Hospital in Atlantic City, New Jersey, later that month. William returned home to his family and was soon engaged to neighborhood sweetheart Lois Cloyde Mathews. The two were married in September 1947 and settled at 739 Bellaire Avenue.

* Written by Clint Burton: April 6, 2018 *

The Brookline War Memorial

Listed below are many of the sons of Brookline who gave their
lives to preserve freedom and contain aggression during
World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died.
Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.”
General George S. Patton
 

World War I (1917-1919)

The World War I Memorial - Washington D.C.

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World War II (1941-1945)

The World War II Memorial - Washington D.C.

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Korean War (1950-1953)

Korean War Memorial - Washington D.C.

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Vietnam War (1965-1973)

Vietnam War Memorial - Washington D.C.

The Brookline Monument - The Cannon

<Brookline War Memorial> <> <Brookline History>