Clair Dewayne Shields

CPL in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : Co D

ASN#35233340

Born 1912 in PA, Died 1996

County of residence at enlistment: Columbiana County, OH

Other residence(s): New Castle, PA; Leetonia, OH; Fairfield, OH; Madison, OH; Ravenna, OH; Mantua, OH; Aurora, OH

United States Army, European Theatre of Operations

Occupation before the war: semiskilled chauffeurs and drivers, bus, taxi, truck, and tractor

Notes: Rank per newspaper article, July 1945

Source: Notes provided by family of Harold Dahl; Bernie Mason Company D Roster; Bernie Mason photo of Company D in Trier with names on back.

Clair Shields was born on August 19, 1912 in Mahoningtown, a neighborhood of New Castle, PA. He was the middle of three children, with an older sister and a much younger sister.

By 1930, the family was living in Crescent, PA, a small town northwest of Pittsburgh. Clair had left school after the eighth grade and was working as a laborer in a steel mill.

On December 6, 1934, he married Audrey Morris; they would go on to have a son, Michael, born in 1942.

When Clair registered for the draft, on October 16, 1940, he was working at Berg’s Bretzels, a pretzel and snack manufacturer in Leetonia, OH. He enlisted on July 5, 1943; his occupation was given as a bus/taxi/truck/tractor driver—it is possible he was a delivery driver for the pretzel company. He was assigned to the 603^rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion, and saw service in Europe with the unit during the war.

He was discharged with the rank of CPL and returned to Ohio. In 1950, the census shows that he was back at the pretzel company (which had been acquired in 1945 by Dan Dee Pretzel and Potato Chip Company) working as a plant maintenance engineer. A newspaper article from 1949 credits him with the development of an electrical potato chip box wrapper which also stamped each package with the sale price. The new equipment enabled the company to turn out 60,000 boxes of chips per shift.

Clair and Audrey divorced early in 1953, with Audrey taking Michael with her. On May 4, 1953 Clair married Iris Hawkins Hirst in St. Johns, FL. There was a son, Paul, born in 1950—this may have been Iris’s son from an earlier marriage. Clair and Iris also had a son, Roger, born in 1955.

In the mid-1950s, the Shields family moved to Mantua, OH, and Clair and Iris took over Harper’s Service, a farm implements dealership. The couple ran this business until 1973. (A newspaper article from 1964 describes their winning a trip to Florida for selling the most Century space heaters in their region.) After that, Clair worked as a steel fabricator with Stamm Construction in Mantua until 1987, the year Iris died.

As a veteran, Clair was a member of Aurora Post No. 2629 of the VFW, and Mantua American Legion Post No. 193, where he served as a trustee for the corporation when it was chartered in 1970. He also served as commander and financial officer. Iris was active in the Legion Auxiliary, becoming a state officer.

He was also a member of the Leetonia, OH Masonic Lodge and Mystic Chapter 32 OES in Mantua. He belonged to the Crestwood Raritan Club; he was long active there with the annual clambake, a civic fundraising project. He attended Hilltop Christian Church in Mantua.

Clair died on December 21, 1996 in Florida while visiting his son. He is buried at Hillside Cemetery in Mantua, OH.