Adelman, William Ira

Born in Pittsburgh in 1914, William Ira Adelman was a graduate of Shadyside Academy and Harvard University. After graduating from Harvard in 1936, Adelman joined his father, Abraham Adelman, in business at the Adelman Lumber Company. In 1943, Adelman enlisted in the U.S. Navy, training at Fort Schuyler, New York, and Melville, Rhode Island. In July 1944, he was commissioned as an ensign and assigned to a patrol torpedo boat squadron with the Seventh Fleet in the Pacific. The following October, the boat on which Adelman served, PT-323, participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. On December 10, 1944, Adelman was killed when his ship, PT-323, was struck by a kamikaze pilot near the island of Leyte. In memory of his son, Abraham Adelman made a donation to Montefiore Hospital, which at the time was one of the largest single gifts the hospital had received.