Victor C Motto
PFC in Signal Co, Special
Military occupational specialty: 521 (basic, administration)
ASN#20641757
Born 1921 in MI, Died 2014
County of enlistment: Detroit, MI
Other residence(s): Detroit, MI; Houston, TX; Warren, MI
United States Army, European Theatre of Operations
College education after the war: University of Houston (likely)
Vic Motto was born on June 24, 1921 in Highland Park, MI, the younger of two sons. His father was a pattern maker for the Ford Motor Company's huge plant in Highland Park (the birthplace of Ford's assembly line). His father had been born in Austria/Germany and his mother in Hungary; his father had anglicized his name from "Mateovitz."
His mother died when he was seven years old; his father remarried a couple of years later. His father, his mother, and his stepmother all spoke German with young Vic when he was growing up.
He graduated from Southfield High School in Detroit in 1940, and enlisted in the field artillery on April 7, 1941. At some point he found himself in the Signal Company Special, and served overseas with the unit. He filled out his draft card on October 3, 1945 after returning to the US; his occupation was listed as "unemployed veteran."
Vic returned to Detroit after the war, but, according to his niece, "his father did not respect the fact that Vic had fought against the Germans. After the war, his father . . . entertained a German officer that he had known in high school. This troubled Vic greatly."
He was an outstanding baseball pitcher, and was drafted by a Major League team and sent to a farm team in Houston. His baseball career was not long-lived; an arm injury took him out of the game. But he liked Houston and stayed there, marrying a woman named Charlie Mae, who owned a café, and earning a degree in accounting (possibly from the University of Houston). He then took a job with Gulf Oil and, according to his niece, traveled extensively, often to South America.
Though he could no longer play baseball, he did become an avid golfer. Frequent newspaper articles in the Houston papers allude to his holes-in-one and low scores in local tournament play. He also managed the Gulf Oil team in the Houston Chronicle's City Softball Tournament for several years.
Charlie Mae died of Lupus on April 9, 1991; Vic and Charlie did not have any children. A little over a year later, Vic married Lurlie Stewart, but the marriage lasted less than six months. On September 11, 1993, he married Michigan native Helen V. Bires in Harris, TX. He and Helen settled in Detroit so he could be near his older brother, John.
Vic died on April 11, 2014 in Warren, MI and is buried at Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton Township, MI.
Sources:
1924 father's naturalization papers
1930 census
1940 census
1941 enlistment card
1945 draft card (filled out at conclusion of service)
1954 article in the Houston Chronicle (TX) about the Gulf Oil softball team
1957 article in the Houston Chronicle (TX) about the Gulf Crest softball team
1958 US city directories, Houston, TX
1990 article in the Houston Chronicle (TX) about his scoring a hole-in-one
1991 wife's obituary in the Houston Chronicle (TX)
1992 marriage record
1992 divorce record
1993 marriage record
1995 US public records index
2014 death notice in the Detroit News (MI)
2014 obituary
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/victor-motto-obituary?pid=179214008
2014 Find a Grave record
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/255461520/victor-c-motto
2024 (May 22) GALP Veteran Biography Worksheet from niece Terry Motto Smith