Ensign Wolcott Presumed Dead

Reported Lost

Ensign George Wolcott, son of Mrs. Grace Wolcott, 431 Thompson St., who was reported missing off Bougainville last December when his ship, the U. S. S. McKean, was torpedoed, has been reported dead by the Navy department.

Ensign Wolcott Presumed Dead

Because all conditions were favorable to the rescue of Ensign George Wolcott last December when his ship, the U. S. S. McKean was torpedoed off Bougainville, and because no word has been received concerning him since then, the Navy Department has presumed him to be dead.

His mother, Mrs. Grace Wolcott, 431 Thompson St., received this notification yesterday. The Navy Department explained that the weather was good at the time her son's ship was struck and that rescue was not only possible but probable. However, no such news has arrived during the past year, so that Ensign Wolcott has been given up as dead.

Reporting to the Navy in February, 1942, the ensign had entered midshipman's training and had been granted his commission at Notre Dame„ Ind., In May. 1943. A month later, he sailed for the South Pacific on board the transport M ain.

He was a graduate of Cooley High school, Detroit, and the School of Forestry and Conservation of the University. During his school years he worked part time for the King-Seeley Corp.

During the summer of his junior year in college, he took part In the U. S. Forest Service olister rust control project. Before entering the Navy, he was a wood technologist for the Army Air Forces in the glider plant at Greenville.