Early Life and Family

Frank Robert Thoroughgood was born in Easton, Pennsylvania on July 9, 1910. He was the son of Robert William Thoroughgood (a college professor, 1878–1933) and Laura Maude Thoroughgood (née Sharp, 1884–1975). Census records, directories, and his headstone refer to him as F. Robert Thoroughgood. He had a younger sister, Annie Jeannette Thoroughgood (later Werntz, 1911–1996).

By January 6, 1920, the family was living on Railroad Avenue in Georgetown, Delaware at F. Robert’s grandmother Annie Thoroughgood’s house. (The 1910 census indicated that the address was 204 Railroad Avenue.) Later in 1920, the family moved to Newark, Delaware, where Robert Thoroughgood taught civil engineering at the University of Delaware.

According to a December 10, 1942 article printed in The Newark Post, Thoroughgood graduated from Newark High School in 1926 and then began college at the University of Delaware on “September 17, 1926 as an arts and science student. He majored in business administration and was elected to Phi Kappa Phi, honorary society.”

The article added:

“Thoroughgood was on the college honor roll all four years and was a member of the R.O.T.C. He was also a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity at the college and was corresponding secretary of the fraternity.”

As of April 1930, the family was living at 46 East Delaware Avenue in Newark. A 1932 Wilmington, Delaware directory recorded him as living in Newark but working as a clerk for the Continental American Life Insurance Company in Wilmington. Professor Thoroughgood died in 1933.

By the time they were next recorded on the census on April 2, 1940, F. Robert Thoroughgood, his mother, and sister had moved to 38 West Delaware Avenue. Thoroughgood was working as an insurance underwriter at the time. When he registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, Thoroughgood’s employer was still listed as the Continental American Life Insurance Company in nearby Wilmington. He was described as standing five feet, six inches tall and weighing 173 lbs., with brown hair. Oddly, his eye color was listed as both gray and brown.

Frank R. Thoroughgood (Courtesy of the Newark History Museum)

Military Career

A State of Delaware Individual Military Service Record submitted to the Delaware Public Archives Commission during or shortly after the war (neither signed nor dated but presumably filled out by his mother or sister) stated that Thoroughgood was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Army’s Coast Artillery Corps on August 23, 1942 at Fort DuPont, Delaware.

The December 10, 1942 article in The Newark Post stated that Thoroughgood was “attending officers training school at Fort Monroe, Va.” when “He was taken ill in October and went to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington”. 2nd Lieutenant Thoroughgood died on the evening of December 9, 1942. The illness was described as “a heart ailment”. Just 32 years old, Lieutenant Thoroughgood was the first of 29 men connected with the Newark area to die while serving in the armed forces during World War II. He was buried at the Union Cemetery in Georgetown, Delaware, where other members of his family including his parents and paternal grandparents also rest.

Thoroughgood is one of 29 men listed on Newark's World War II memorial

Notes

The available documents indicated that Thoroughgood was commissioned directly, and indeed, there is no enlistment card for him. That would suggest he was indeed commissioned as an officer without being an enlisted man first, notwithstanding the fact that approximately 15% of enlistment cards could not be digitized. Fort Monroe did have a Coastal Artillery School and an Officer Candidate School. However, given the length of time he was at Fort Monroe, he could not have graduated from O.C.S. there before falling sick.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to the Newark History Museum for the use of their photograph of 2nd Lieutenant Thoroughgood.

This piece was written by Lowell Silverman as part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/), with the goal of eventually honoring all 400,000 American service members who were killed during World War II. Additional tributes by the author can be viewed here.

Bibliography

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Frank Robert Thoroughgood Individual Military Service Record, date unknown. RG 1325-003-053, Delaware Public Archives. https://cdm16397.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15323coll6/id/21139

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Article last updated January 21, 2021