Macario J "Mac" Zordan
1LT in 3133rd Signal Service Co : Officer
ASN#1635510
Born 1919 in IL, Died 2012
Other residence(s): Homewood, IL; Chicago, IL; Waterford, NY
Occupation before the war: US Army officer
Macario "Mac" Zordan was born on April 14, 1919 in Homewood, IL, the older of two children. His father worked as a carpenter; both of his parents had been born in Italy.
Mac grew up in Homewood, and in 1937 graduated from Thornton Township High School, where he played violin in the orchestra. He enlisted in the Army two years later, in December 1939. He was first sent to Fort Lewis in Washington where he was stationed with the 9th Field Artillery, and was then assigned to a course of study at the University of Oregon. After that he attended Officers' Training School at Fort Monmouth, NJ and was commissioned a 2LT in the Signal Corps on August 13, 1942. He was then stationed with the Army Air Force in Presque Isle, ME.
He was in Maine for at least a year. At some point, he found his way into the 3133 Signal Service Company, and is listed as an officer in that unit in September, 1944 at Pine Camp, NY. It is possible that he did not go to Europe with the unit since, according to his obituary, he served in the Battle of Leyte in the Pacific Theatre in the fall of 1944. (It is equally possible that he returned to Pine Camp after leaving the Philippines.)
Mac was discharged from the Army in 1945 with the rank of CPT. He returned to New York where he married Peg Pagliaroli on April 21, 1946. Peg had grown up in Watertown (the nearest town to Pine Camp where the 3133rd had trained) and they undoubtedly met while Mac was stationed there.
By 1950, Mac and Peg were living in Chicago, IL with their two children: Larry and Bonnie. Mac worked there as a central office installer with the electric company. But eventually the family settled in Waterford, NY when Mac went to work with New York Telephone. He would remain there for the rest of his career, retiring in 1984. Along the way, Mac and Peg had two more children: Paul and Robert.
Mac was a member of the Telephone Pioneers of America and the VFW Post in Halfmoon, NY. He also held a U.S. patent for a dry cell adapter, obtained in 1977.
Peg Zordan died in 2005; Mac died on April 15, 2012 in Waterford and is buried at Waterford Rural Cemetery.
Sources:
1920 census
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/73026126:6061?ssrc=pt&tid=43938920&pid=12725791129
1930 census
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/25177904:6224?ssrc=pt&tid=43938920&pid=12725791129
1934 high school yearbook (freshman)
1937 high school yearbook (senior)
1940 census
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/65143626:2442?ssrc=pt&tid=43938920&pid=12725791129
1942 article in the Homewood-Flossmoor Star (IL) about his military career
https://newspaperarchive.com/homewood-homewood-flossmoor-star-aug-25-1942-p-1/
1943 record of military flight from Presque Isle, ME to NYC
1946 New York state marriage index
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/5880112:61632?ssrc=pt&tid=43938920&pid=12725791129
1950 census
1977 patent issued
https://patents.google.com/patent/US4142026A/en
1993-95 US phone and address directories for Waterford NY
2012 Social Security death index
2012 obituary in the Times Union (Albany, NY)
2012 obituary
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/troyrecord/name/marcario-zordan-obituary?id=25625630
2012 Find a Grave record
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/140774086/macario-zordan