AUGUST 4, 1921 – DECEMBER 6, 2020
Edward John Socha of Sun City Center, Florida and Longmont, Colorado, passed away on December 6, 2020. He was born on August 4, 1921 in the Adirondack town of Highmarket, New York. He graduated from Niagara Falls Sr. High School in 1939 and enlisted in the US Navy in September of that year. He went to Newport, RI boot camp, and then attended fleet school in San Diego. He was assigned as personal secretary of Command Battleships at Pearl Harbor on board the USS Maryland as Yeoman 1st class. On the morning of December 7, 1941, he was on the bridge of the USS Maryland as the USS Oklahoma – docked next to his ship – took several Japanese torpedoes to its hull and overturned within minutes. In 1943-1944, he was stationed at US Naval Mobile Hospital No. 8 on Guadalcanal, where he was commissioned an ensign.
Following enrollment in Scout and Raider training in Ft. Pierce, Florida, he spent the spring of 1945 in China participating in the historic survey of the Yangtze River and assisting in the training of Chinese commandos until the war’s end. Until his retirement as a Commander in 1966, he served multiple assignments at the Pentagon, two years on the Aleutian Island of Adak and completed his service at the Brooklyn Naval Yard. Ed held private sector employment from 1966-1983 with the Lummus Company, a division of Combustion Engineering Company, as Engineering Administrator, working in their Atlanta, Houston and Bloomfield, NJ offices, residing in Morris Township, NJ until moving to Sun City Center, FL in 1987. He was very active in the Sun City Center community, serving as Director of the Sun City Center Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) for 5 years and was as its president in 1994. He was a life member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors’ Association.
He served on the Board of the Retired Officers’ Association and the Military Officers Benevolent Corporation at Freedom Plaza in Sun City Center. In January 2011, he completed 23 years of service with the volunteer Security Patrol. On March 1, 2017, at the regular meeting of the Military Officers Association, Sun City Chapter, Commander Socha was presented with the Navy SEALS Trident by Captain Joseph Yarborough, U.S. Navy, acting on behalf of the Navy SEALS. This was in recognition of the role the WW II Scouts and Raiders played as the forerunners of the present-day SEALS. He was invited to take one of the Honor Flights conducted by a non-profit organization dedicated to transporting United States military veterans to Washington D.C. to see the memorials of the respective wars in which they fought. Ed married Naomi A. Sucher of Louisville, KY in August of 1948 in Newport, RI who preceded him in death in May 2019. They had two children, son Donald (wife Benita and children Christina and Xavier) who preceded his father in death and daughter Barbara Wilsey (husband Martin, children Joshua (Stephanie), Timothy (Juliana) and Samuel (Elizabeth)).
He leaves behind 13 great grandchildren: Alexa, Kian, Emelyn, Tanith, Cora, Erienne, Marilise, Reese, Emma, Grace, Abigail, Micah, and Hannah. He was preceded in death by his mother, Jennifer Socha Rybacki, his father, John Socha and stepfather Ignatius Rybacki, and brothers Michael, William, Stanley and Richard. He is survived by brother Theodore Socha and two sisters, Veronica and Adeline, along with many nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held at Trinity Baptist Church in Sun City Center at a time to be determined. He will be laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.
