Samuel Matthews Vauclain, III

Samuel Matthews Vauclain, III
Personal details
Born	3 July 1915 Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Died	20 November 2007
Nativity	United States
Religion	Protestant
Awards	Bronze Star
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
Arm / service	Field Artillery
ASN	01172324
Rank	Captain
Rank at Ritchie	Second Lieutenant
Camp Ritchie	Class 3 (2 November – 23 December 1942)
Section	E

Awards and honors

Bronze Star

Research notes on this page are compiled from the source file and later edits. They may be unverified, incomplete, or incorrect, and should not be treated as established fact. Please correct the article or add sources on the talk page. For class-roster terms, see About the data.

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Samuel Matthews Vauclain III (3 July 1915 – 20 November 2007) was a United States Army officer who trained and taught at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, in Class 3.

Biography

Samuel Matthews Vauclain III was born on 3 July 1915 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He attended the Haverford School, graduated from the Lawrenceville School in 1933, and finished Princeton University in 1938 (Elm Club). He then worked as a geological scout for the Sun Oil Company in Mississippi.

Drafted on 10 December 1941, Vauclain trained at Fort Bragg and was commissioned a second lieutenant in October 1942. At Camp Ritchie (Class 3) he taught a terrain-intelligence course. Shipped to the South Pacific in January 1944, he served in intelligence at Lae, Finschhafen, and Hollandia in New Guinea and later in the Philippines, receiving the Bronze Star and Philippine Liberation recognition. He left the Army as a captain in January 1946 and returned to a long career as a Sun Oil geologist. Vauclain died on 20 November 2007.

Research notes

• Chronology cleaned from garbled prior live biography.

Gallery

• 
  Samuel Matthews Vauclain III portrait (RB Archive)

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	92
Class_ASN	172324
Class_Name	VAUCLAIN, Samuel M.
match_method	asn_partial_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• 3 July 1915 — Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
• 1938 — Graduated Princeton University.
• 10 December 1941 — Drafted into the U.S. Army.
• October 1942 — Commissioned second lieutenant.
• Class 3 — Taught terrain intelligence at Camp Ritchie.
• January 1944 — Deployed to the South Pacific (New Guinea; later Philippines).
• January 1946 — Left the Army as a captain; Bronze Star.
• 20 November 2007 — Died.

Sources

• Samuel Matthews Vauclain III portrait (RB Archive)
• RB Archive packet for Samuel Matthews Vauclain
• Samuel Matthews Vauclain III obituary (Chadwick & McKinney)
• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2022-12-13 (1 post)