John F. Romanoff

Mr. Romanoff was a six-year Army veteran who served with the 49th Infantry Division in the Central Pacific Theater and in Japan during and after World War II. He was a member of the Disabled American Veterans and a communicant of St. Joseph Church in Fairhaven.

His wife, Dorothy (Ross) Romanoff, had urged him to take up a shore job, but he reluctantly refused to give up fishing because the family needed the money. In addition to his wife, he was survived by four children: Margaret, 8; Michael, 6; Kathleen, 4; and John, 2; two brothers, Lieutenant Alexander Romanoff of the U.S. Army at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey.; and Nicholas Romanoff, of Perth Amboy, New Jersey; a sister, Antoinette Rostrom of Flemington, New Jersey; his mother, Marie Romanoff, of Flemington; and three nephews.

The Doris Gertrude,  with a crew of eleven, was dragging for scallops on the south side of Georges Bank on January 13 when bad weather caused her to secure her fishing gear and jog in location approximately 150 miles east by south of Pollock Rip Lightship. The vessel was not seen again.

On January 26, the owner of the ship reported to the Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Center in Boston that the Doris Gertrude was overdue. A Coast Guard search continued until February 3. None of the men's bodies were recovered. Eighteen children were left fatherless.