Eric Howard Fundin
T/5 in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : HQ & Service Co
ASN#33742313
Born 1909 in DE, Died 1964
Artist
County of enlistment: Ft. Myer, VA
Other residence(s): Wilmington, DE; New Haven, CT; Washington, DC; Silver Spring, MD; Bethesda, MD
United States Army, European Theatre of Operations
Occupation before the war: draftsmen
College education before the war: Drexel 2 years
Eric Fundin was born on June 11, 1909 in Wilmington, DE, the oldest of three children. His mother and all four of his grandparents had been born in Sweden.
Eric attended public schools in Wilmington and in New Haven, CT and also studied for two years at Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia (now Drexel University). He found work as an architectural draftsman, working in private firms (including the offices of a Wilmington architect who did work for the DuPont family) and government agencies (which included the Air Force and the Veterans Administration).
He married nurse Agnes Angle on June 21, 1930; they would go on to have two sons, Eric and Mauritz, but the marriage was short-lived. They were separated by 1940, at which time Eric was working at the Office of the Quartermaster in the General Construction Division at Fort Myer in Arlington, VA, and living in a Washington, DC boarding house.
Eric registered for the draft on October 16, 1940 and enlisted on May 28, 1943 (six weeks after his divorce from Agnes). He became a member of the 603rd Engineer Combat Battalion and served in Europe with the unit.
He was hospitalized twice during his service—in May/June 1944 with pneumonia and in January/February 1945 with a crushed finger.
He was discharged from the Army with the rank of T/5 and went back to his work as an architectural draftsman.
On March 17, 1947 he married Noreen Lillian Mathews, and they settled in Maryland, living in Silver Spring and later in Bethesda. He was a member of Washington Centennial Lodge No. 14 of the Masons and Augustana Lutheran Church in Washington, DC.
He died on November 18, 1964 in Bethesda, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.
Sources:
1910 census
1930 census
1930 wedding announcement in The Evening Journal (Wilmington DE)
1940 census
1940 draft card
1943 divorce record
1943 enlistment record
1944 World War II hospital admission record
1945 World War II hospital admission record
1947 marriage record
1947 father's obituary in The Morning News (Wilmington DE)
1955 city directory, Wilmington, DE
1958 city directory, Silver Spring, MD
1964 obituary in The Morning News (Wilmington DE)
1964 US Veterans' Gravesites