Robert “Bob” Louie Fernandez or “Uncle Bob” was a hero to many, but to those who knew him beyond his military service and patriotism, he was just a dad, a grandfather, and a friend.
Fernandez, one of the last known Pearl Harbor survivors, died at the age of 100 on Wednesday, Dec. 11, in the comfort of his nephew’s home in Lodi.
“He took his last breath holding my daughter’s hand (Haley Torrell) so he wasn’t alone. He was loved and we had the hospital bed here in the front room next to the fireplace. His favorite place was in front of the fire,” said his nephew, Joseph Guthrie. “We had a nice big, roaring fire going. He passed very peacefully.”
In January, Fernandez was hospitalized after a mild stroke that prompted him to move in with Guthrie and his family in February. He also had dementia.
“He lived quite a healthy life. He lived alone until last January,” Guthrie said.
Fernandez and Guthrie had plans to travel to Hawaii for the 83rd Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. They had to cancel plans just days before traveling after Fernandez’s health declined.
“They said he had another stroke about a month ago. With the dementia, it’s kind of strange, it’s almost like your brain doesn’t know you’re sick, so it takes a while for the symptoms to kick in,” Guthrie said. “He really didn’t die from the stroke, he continued to live a good life, and he kind of died on his own terms. I believe he died from old age, he was 100 years old.”
Where it all started
Fernandez was born in Hollister and raised in San Jose, Guthrie said. He was only 17 years old when he joined the Navy.
In an interview with The Stockton Record last year, Fernandez joked about how he thought that his father may have wanted to get rid of him when he asked him if he wanted to join the Marines while they went to the post office. Military recruiters were stationed there.
Fernandez recalled a Marine recruiter overheard the conversation and asked how old he was.
“I said, ’17,’ and he said, ‘You can’t get in now.’ There was an Army guy sitting a little ways down. I told him I was 17 and he said to ‘come back after you’re 18,'” Fernandez told The Stockton Record. “A guy who was across the hall, who was a Navy guy, said ‘We’ll take you at 17.’ The Marines wouldn’t take me, the Army wouldn’t take me, but the Navy would.”
Fernandez enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1941 and was a seaman first class assigned to the USS Curtiss AV-4 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Stockton Record reported that Fernandez was a mess cook, he set up tables, did kitchen prep, cleaned up, and served coffee to the other sailors.
He also loaded ammunition at his battle station, the Library of Congress website states.
On Dec. 7, 1941, the day of the Pearl Harbor attack, Fernandez was on board.
Fernandez told The Stockton Record he had shore leave scheduled that day with plans to go dancing and have a few beers with his friends at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
“I never did get my liberty,” Fernandez said.
A Japanese zero flew so close to the ship’s deckthat Fernandez could see the face of the pilot as he scrambled to his station, The Stockton Record previously reported. Fernandez helped load ammunition for the ships’ 6-inch guns and stood guard over a kamikaze plane that had crashed into the Curtiss’ deck.
“It was scary. Very scary,” Fernandez said. “You just got to do what you’re told to do and do the best you can.”
The crew then moved the heavy ammo by hand, bucket-brigade style.
“It (the battle) was about an hour and 15 minutes, I believe,” he said. “It seemed like a hell of a long time, but that’s all it was.”
“Pearl Harbor was not alone, as bases all over O’ahu were simultaneously attacked. The intent was to disable the planes on the ground, preventing airborne resistance to the main attack on the fleet at Pearl Harbor,” the Pacific Historic Parks website states. “In Honolulu, civilians lost their lives when improperly fused antiaircraft shells landed in the city. Around the island, soldiers and sailors fired back with whatever guns they could find, but with little effect.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, 21 men aboard the Curtiss were killed and nearly 60 were injured, with more than 2,400 service members killed during the attack.
Fernandez remained with the ship for four more years and served during the campaigns at Midway, Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“He wore his service as a badge of honor his entire life. I don’t think there was a day that passed that he (didn’t) remember that day and his service. He was very patriotic,” Guthrie said. “He was very proud of his service and proud of being a veteran, and he took care of everybody else in his family.”
Fernandez retired from the U.S. Navy on Aug. 7, 1947, after serving six years, Guthrie said.
“He never considers himself a hero, but he’s been treated like a hero the last few years, and well deserved,” Guthrie said. “His motto for life was just be kind to everyone, and he was. Boy, he lit up the room. He had beautiful blue eyes and a smile that would just knock me out.”
Guthrie went on to say that his uncle was “a tremendous human being.”
A gentlemen’s agreement
The Mexican-American veteran married after the war and moved from San Leandro, where he retired from working at Continental Can.
The couple moved several times before settling in Stockton so that his wife, Mary Fernandez, could be closer to his sister, Guthrie’s mother, Frances Guthrie, Guthrie said.
Mary Fernandez died in 2014, Guthrie said.
“I made an agreement with him 10 years ago, the day of my aunt’s funeral … at 90 years old, he asked me, ‘What’s going to happen to me and who’s going to take care of me when I get old?’ When he was 90, he asked me that,” Guthrie said. “I told him that when he got to a point where he couldn’t live alone, he could come and live with me, and he could die at my house. We shook hands. That’s the agreement I kept with him.”
Fernandez lived independently for a decade at his Shadow Lakes Trailer Park home up until February, when he moved in with Guthrie, his wife Kimberly Guthrie, and their son Noah.
The Guthries took care of Fernandez, but he also had a caregiver, Maria Dominguez, Guthrie said.
When Guthrie’s father died in 1999, Fernandez filled that role in his life. Fernandez was his “favorite guy in the world,” Guthrie said.
“Every night he would thank me for taking care of him and shake my hand before he went to sleep,” Guthrie said. “He would tell me he would pray for me and tell me every night I might put a good word in with the big guy for you. I would just tell him, ‘Uncle Bob, you’re my best pal.’ He was my best friend.”
Whirlows royalty
Fernandez had just celebrated his centennial birthday and Guthrie’s 60th birthday on July 11 at Whirlow’s Tossed and Grilled.
Guests included Fernandez’s son Robert Jimenez Fernandez, Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln, San Joaquin County Supervisor Tom Patti, and more.
Lincoln and Patti presented proclamations to Fernandez in honor of his contributions during the war and turning 100 years old, The Stockton Record previously reported.
“On behalf of the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors, I want to offer our condolences to the family and friends of Bob Hernandez. Mr. Hernandez’s service to our country as a sailor on the U.S.S. Curtiss brought him to a pivotal point in our nation’s history, the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served his nation well and valiantly. His bravery and sacrifice during one of the most critical periods of American history are an example to all of us,” San Joaquin County board chairman, Miguel Villapudua said in an email.
“His courage and resilience have been an inspiration. Having fought a good fight and lived a long and memorable life, we know that his eternal rest is well deserved. We offer our prayers to his family and friends, that their good memories of Bob will bring them comfort and joy in the difficult days and weeks ahead.”
Fernandez was a regular at the Stockton restaurant. That was the place where Fernandez could be found on the dance floor every Thursday, Guthrie said.
“The last 10 years Uncle Bob got to live the life that he won. He went to breakfast every day with his buddies for several years, every single morning, they would get up and go for breakfast,” Guthrie said. “He would go to the American Legion and the Moose Lodge, and he would go to dances at Whirlows Tossed and Grill. It was always guaranteed to see him Thursday, dancing with all the ladies and singing a song or two. His favorite song was Frank Sinatra’s version of ‘All of Me.'”
Guthrie said that his uncle never met a stranger.
“He had a magnetic personality that people were drawn to,” he said. “He made friends everywhere he went. Every place we went he made friends.”
Pearl Harbor survivor Robert “Bob” Fernandez of Stockton stands next to large poster of himself at his 100th birthday party at Whirlow’s Tossed and Grilled restaurant in Stockton on Jul. 11, 2024. Fernandez served as a mess mate on the U.S.S. Curtiss when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor happened on Dec. 7, 1941.
‘He loved to sing and loved to dance’
Jimenez Fernandez followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Army. The 83-year-old Sun Lakes, Arizona resident remembered his dad fondly.
“He was a really good dad. We used to all sing together. He sang with big bands in the military with a Navy Band, and then he sang with after he got out and sang with bands,” Jimenez Fernandez said. “He loved to sing and loved to dance.”
He said that it brings him pride knowing his dad was a Pearl Harbor veteran and is part of history.
“He’s just my father. He’s my dad. I never really thought of him as a hero. I mean, as a veteran, all veterans are heroes to me,” he said. “It’s an exclusive club.”
Jimenez Fernandez said his dad had a great personality.
“He was always happy. Never seen him too sad,” Jimenez Fernandez said. “He had a good attitude.”
A photo of Pearl Harbor survivor Robert Fernandez circa 1940s.
Living to 100
Fernandez followed three steps that may have helped in living such a long life.
Guthrie asked his uncle how he managed to live such a long life. Fernandez said there were three things: “go upstairs one stair at a time … don’t stop on the stair, march up the stairs, and he did that his whole life … stop eating when you’re full … stay moving, keep moving.”
In October, Guthrie and Fernandez went on the Honor Flight with Kern County to Washington D.C..
Guthrie said he plans on continuing to volunteer as a guardian with Honor Flight in honor of his uncle and other veterans. He will also continue to post on the Uncle Bob’s Adventures Group Facebook page, he said.
Fernandez’s funeral services are scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 11, and are open to the public, Guthrie said.
His church service will begin at 11 a.m. at Bear Creek Community Church at 11171 N. Lower Sacramento Road in Lodi.
A military graveside service will follow at 1 p.m. at the Cherokee Memorial Cemetery at 14165 Beckman Road in Lodi. The memorial and a reception will begin at 2:30 p.m. at Bear Creek Community Church.
“Everybody loved Uncle Bob, everybody just loved the guy. He’s going to be very, very missed in this community. I really believe that his love of people was contagious, and other people are going to carry that same attitude with them after meeting Uncle Bob,” Guthrie said. “When they come across a stranger, or they meet people, they’re going to remember how Uncle Bob treated them and I’m hoping that that becomes contagious, and that’s his legacy.”
Record photojournalist Clifford Oto contributed to this report.
Record reporter Angelaydet Rocha covers community news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at arocha@recordnet.com or on Twitter @AngelaydetRocha. To support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: Robert Fernandez, one of last Pearl Harbor survivors, dies at 100