Obituary: Herbert Gray Chandler (1925-2023)

Herbert Gray Chandler (Age 97)
Memorial service info

Herbert Gray Chandler, Jr. a decorated World War II combat infantryman who was deployed to Europe entering the port in Marseille, France in 1944 and fought for over 19 months in the European Theater of Operations campaigns in France and Germany, died early in the morning at home on February 10, 2023, of natural causes in Arlington, Virginia, age 97.

He was born early in the morning on December 2, 1925 in Williamsburg, Virginia, at the President’s House of the College of William & Mary, to Helen and Herbert G. Chandler Sr., while his Grandfather, Dr. Julian Alvin Carroll (J.A.C.) Chandler, resided there as the College’s 18th President. Later that evening, the Chandlers hosted an elegant dinner for the Governor of Virginia, at which his Mother, known as Hallie, attended. Years later, his Uncle, Adm. Alvin Duke Chandler, served as its 21st president.

In 1944, the enlisted Mr. Chandler completed basic infantry training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and then joined the 100th Infantry Division, 398th Regiment, nicknamed the “Sons of Bitche,” which took its name from the Battle of Bitche in western France.

He went ashore at Marseille as a combat infantryman in 1944 encountering uninterrupted ground combat for 189 days and was present during the Vosges Mountain campaign and went on to fight the brutal winter combat of the Battle of the Bitche. Action was so intense, that he and his comrades didn’t get a shower or change of clothes for three months. In March 1945, the 100th Infantry Division broke through the historic Maginot Line and captured the city of Bitche, liberating French towns along the way, they then moved on toward the Rhine River, which they crossed into Germany.

Discharged in 1946, he was awarded 3 campaign battle stars, the combat infantry badge, 2 Bronze Star Medals, and, in 2011, he received France’s highest military award, the Chevalier Legion of Honor. For his service, he also received the Army Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and his unit, 3rd Batallion, 398th Infantry Regiment division was twice awarded Presidential Unit Citation for Valor.

He enrolled at the College of William & Mary under the GI Bill of Rights and earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 1950. He went to New York City and earned an Associates in Management designation from the College of Insurance of New York City. He spent his entire career in the insurance industry and retired in 1992 as Vice President of Administration of a subsidiary of the Prudential Insurance Company in Mansfield, Ohio. He was on the Board of the Mansfield Symphony and the United Way, was a member of the 100th Infantry Division Association, the Sons of the American Revolution, and Kappa Alpha Order.

Survived by his beloved wife of 57 years, Cynthia (Faul), his sisters-in-law, Georgianne Faul O’Connor, Leonora Spann Chandler, and Margaret H. Faul, several nieces and nephews and their children, and devoted caregivers, Hudah, Abdul, Millicent, Cissy, Josephine, Mariatu and Sam.

His funeral service will be on March 1st at 11 AM following the viewing at 10AM at Murphy Funeral Home, 4510 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, Virginia, and at a private graveside service later on March 1, 2023 at the family plot at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

100th Infantry Division
Who loving life
Courted death
So that freedom
Could remain immortal

The following memorial event is planned.

Funeral Service
03/01/2023 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Murphy Funeral Home
4510 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, Virginia 22305

Submitted by Murphy Funeral Home