Leroy Melvin Roy' Bird - Pearl Harbor Survivor October 3, 1920 - July 16, 2020
San Diego Leroy "Roy" Melvin Bird, age 99, passed peacefully from this life July 16, 2020, at Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa.
Roy was born in the Hillcrest area of San Diego, California, where he grew up, worked in a bakery, and joined the Army Reserve while still in high school. He was a senior at San Diego High School when tensions in the Pacific caused his unit to be activated, and he was sent to Oahu, Hawaii, for Training as both a cook and infantryman.
On the morning of the Pearl Harbor Attack, December 7, 1941, he was on his way to the mess hall to make pancakes when enemy aircraft began strafing the area, causing much destruction and changing Roy's life for the next four years.
Returning from the war, Leroy worked in the aircraft industry, gaining expertise in the manufacture and use of various metals and plastics. He also met the love of his life, Louise Nystul, in San Diego.
He is survived by four nephews and two nieces, in addition to other lifetime friends who will dearly miss him. Leroy will be interred at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, joining his wife, Louise, who passed in 2006.