Veteran's son seeks happy ending to Stockton Marine's story

By Lori Gilbert
September 15, 2009
Record Staff Writer

Like a lot of us, Chuck Polvino didn't ask his father a lot of questions about his World War II experiences.

Even if he had, he probably wouldn't have learned much. The Greatest Generation they were, but they were also a modest and rather stoic one. Whatever horrors they witnessed in the second war to end all wars, they, by and large, kept to themselves.

That Polvino, 71, didn't ask more questions doesn't make him a bad son. His actions now, in the wake of his father's death a year ago at age 94, make him quite an extraordinary son.

Polvino, who lives in the upstate New York town of Webster, knew his dad, Nelson, was in the 6th Division Marines. He knew he had been on Guadalcanal and Okinawa as the U.S. worked its way toward a potential invasion of Japan.

Some of what Chuck Polvino knows about his father's military life he learned by watching a television interview his father gave late in his life to a television newscaster.

But when Nelson Polvino died, and his only child was going through his belongings, he "came across a sealed envelope."

"In my father's handwriting, it said: 'World War II. Chick Morris. 19 years old. Killed in Action,' " Polvino said.

Inside the sealed envelope were one dime and one nickel.

"My old memories returned to me," Chuck Polvino said in a phone conversation from his New York home. "I remember the day in 1946 when I held that dime and that nickel. It was the first and only time."

The dime is dated 1942. The nickel was minted in 1944.

Both coins came from the pocket of Morris, a Marine Corps buddy who was killed in front of Nelson Polvino on Okinawa on May 20, 1945. Wanting something to remember his friend by, Nelson Polvino took the coins.

When he returned from his tour of duty in 1946 from Japan, Nelson Polvino showed his son the coins and sealed them away for safekeeping.

During the television interview that came decades later, Nelson Polvino mentioned his friend Chick Morris and said he died in possession of a letter from his mother that said, in part, "When you get home, I'm going to treat you like baby Jesus."

That was a part of the war story Chuck Polvino had not heard before.

Finding the coins from Morris that his father had stored so carefully for 62 years, "I feel like it's my duty to return those coins to someone in Chick's immediate family," Chuck Polvino said.

A retired mechanical engineer, Chuck Polvino is no computer wiz, and his quest to find the family has not been an easy one.

A columnist at his hometown paper helped him get started with a list of Morrises killed during World War II.

That led to a Carroll Morris who was killed at age 19. But as Polvino investigated and found descendants, he learned that Carroll Morris, of Vermont, died on Iwo Jima. The effort wasn't a complete waste of his time, though.

"I talked to his nephew, and he came aware of an uncle he didn't know," Polvino said.

Eventually, Polvino hooked up with the 6th Division Marines Web site. It tells the story of the three infantry regiments that were pulled together on Guadalcanal in 1944 and were the first to land at Okinawa, which would become the site of one of World War II's fiercest battles. The 82-day fight claimed more than 250,000 lives.

Contacts at the 6th Division identified "Chick" Morris as Sims Morris Jr., 19, of Stockton. His parents, Sims and Beatrice Morris, lived on Worth Street when their son was killed in action.

Polvino has spoken with people at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Luneta Post 51 at Stockton Memorial Civic Auditorium. He placed a classified advertisement in The Record on Aug. 16 looking for relatives or friends of the Morris family.

He got no response, so he called The Record newsroom.

A search of the 1941 Stockton High School yearbook located a photograph of Sims Morris with the freshman class. None of the members of that class I contacted remembered him. Morris' name is on the plaque that hangs at The Haggin Museum listing Stockton High students who died in the war.

Sims Morris Jr. was born Nov. 4, 1925. He enlisted in February 1943, indicating he left school early. He was not yet 18. Two years later, six months shy of his 20th birthday, he was a casualty of enemy sniper fire.

His death notice ran in The Stockton Record on July 5, 1945. He left behind a few coins, a letter from home and grieving parents.

Those two coins won't buy much today. But finding the rightful owner of them would be invaluable for Chuck Polvino.

Anyone with memories of Sims Morris Jr. or knowledge of his family, please feel free to contact me. I'd love to help Chuck Polvino write a happy ending to his story.

Contact columnist Lori Gilbert at (209) 546-8284 or lgilbert@recordnet.com.

How to help

If you have any knowledge of Sims "Chick" Morris Jr. or his family, contact Lori Gilbert at (209) 546-8284 or lgilbert@recordnet.com.

Ellie