Herman Zelig Wouk (1915 - 2019)

Born 27 May 1915 in New York City, New York, United States

Husband of Betty Sarah (Brown) Wouk — married 9 Dec 1945 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

Died 17 May 2019 at age 103 in Palm Springs, Riverside, California, United States

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Biography

Herman Wouk is Notable.

Herman Wouk was a centenarian, living to age 103.

Wouk was born in the Bronx, the second of three children born to Esther (née Levine) and Abraham Isaac Wouk, Russian Jewish immigrants from what is today Belarus. His father toiled for many years to raise the family out of poverty before opening a successful laundry service.

Herman Wouk (/woʊk/ WOHK; May 27, 1915 – May 17, 2019) was an American author. His novel The Caine Mutiny (1951) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His other works include The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, historical novels about World War II, and non-fiction such as This Is My God, an explanation of Judaism from a Modern Orthodox perspective, written for Jewish and non-Jewish audiences. His books have been translated into 27 languages. The Washington Post called Wouk, who cherished his privacy, "the reclusive dean of American historical novelists." Historians, novelists, publishers, and critics who gathered at the Library of Congress in 1995 to mark Wouk's 80th birthday described him as an American Tolstoy.

Herman Wouk, author of the novel The Caine Mutiny, served as an officer aboard Zane from February 1943 to February 1945 before becoming executive officer of another Clemson class DMS, the USS Southard in May. Wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Zane_(DD-337)

Honors and Awards

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 1952

Columbia University Medal for Excellence, 1952

Alexander Hamilton Medal, 1980[32]

University of California, Berkeley Medal, 1984

Golden Plate Award, American Academy of Achievement, 1986

United States Navy Memorial Foundation Lone Sailor Award, 1987[33]

Bar-Ilan University Guardian of Zion Award, 1998[34]

University of California, San Diego UCSD Medal, 1998

Jewish Book Council Lifetime Literary Achievement Award, 1999

Library of Congress Lifetime Achievement Award for the Writing of Fiction (inaugural), 2008.

Sources

• Wikipedia
• New York Times
• Britannica
• "California, County Marriages, 1850-1952," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8K3-QLY : 8 December 2017), Herman Zelig Wouk and Betty Carol Brown, 09 Dec 1945; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, county courthouses, California; FHL microfilm 2,115,297.
• "New York State Census, 1925," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KSMT-BKH : 8 November 2014), Herman Z Wouk, New York, A.D. 05, E.D. 17, Bronx, New York, United States; records extracted by Ancestry and images digitized by FamilySearch; citing p. 3, line 04, New York State Archives, Albany.
• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQSJ-3NP : 13 March 2018), Herman Wouk in household of Abraham Wouk, Assembly District 9, Manhattan, New York City, New York, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 31-731, sheet 4B, line 75, family 70, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 2640.
• Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 22 December 2020), memorial page for Herman Wouk (27 May 1915–17 May 2019), Find A Grave: Memorial #189188242, citing Beth David Cemetery, Elmont, Nassau County, New York, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave .