James Henry Rivoir

CPL in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : Co C

ASN#33317466

Born 1913 in PA, Died 1984

Artist

County of enlistment: Philadelphia, PA

Other residence(s): Philadelphia, PA; Germany; Wayne, PA

United States Army, did not accompany the unit to Europe

Occupation before the war: college presidents, professors, and instructors

College education before the war: Drexel Univ. BA and MS

Notes: Transferred to 602nd Engineers in Jan. 1943 (along with seven other officers and NCOs of the 603rd) and went to Europe with that unit; eventually achieved rank of 1SGT

Source: 603rd Camouflage Engineer Roster provided by W. Anderson; Company C roster; photo courtesy Monuments Men and Women Foundation

Jim Rivoir was born on July 3, 1913 in Philadelphia, PA, the middle of five children. His father was a civil engineer with the street railway.

He graduated from Northeast High School in Philadelphia in 1930; while he was a student there he showed early interest in the art career he eventually pursued—participating in the Sketch Club and serving as staff artist for the yearbook.

Jim earned two degrees at Drexel University before the war—a BS in education and an MS in Library Science. By the time he registered for the draft, on October 16, 1940, he was working at Temple University as an art instructor.

He enlisted on June 12, 1942 and was assigned to the 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion. Along with seven other officers and NCOs he was transferred to the 602nd Engineers in January, 1943.

Two of his brothers were also in the Army; his brother Theodore was killed in a 1942 training flight in Louisiana.

In January, 1944 he went to Europe with the 602nd. After the end of the war he stayed in Europe, and was first assigned to the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) Section of the Office of Military Government for Bavaria, the unit responsible for recovering art and cultural objects stolen by the Nazis. After that, he worked at the Munich Central Collecting Point alongside well-known Monuments Men including Edwin C. Rae, Chief of the MFAA, and Capt. Jonathan T. Morey, the fine arts specialist officer, inspecting, identifying, and sorting thousands of looted objects. He also served on the art faculty at a university set up by the US Army in Biarritz, France.*

Both of these assignments appear to have ended in March, 1946. But, according to the Monuments Men website, he "spent much of his postwar time in Germany, where he married a German national." His 1950 Pennsylvania Veterans Compensation Form provides a Pennsylvania mailing address for him, but the document itself was attested to by an American Army Warrant Officer in Oberammergau, Germany, implying that Rivoir was still in Germany at that time.

Nothing else is known of his life or work.

He died on November 20, 1984 in Wayne, PA and is buried, with his parents and his brother Theodore, at St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery in Ardmore, PA.

*Biarritz American University offered 8-week study terms to about 10,000 GIs between August, 1945 and March, 1946. It was located in the resort town of Biarritz, on the coast of France, just north of the border with Spain, and was known as "The GI Paradise." Students and faculty were housed in 300 resort hotels and villas in the town and art was the leading choice of study. There was another similar university (without the resort elements) set up in Shrivenham, England.