Obituary of Daniel H. Else

Daniel Henry Else, Jr., 88, passed away peacefully at home in Waterford Township on Saturday, October 29, 2011. Daniel was born in Chicago to Daniel Henry and Ruth Evalina (Lilja) on December 22, 1922. The son of a Navy Reserve officer, he was raised in south Chicago, graduating from Morgan Park High School. Enlisting in the Navy in late 1942, Daniel saw combat aboard a light aircraft carrier (USS Cowpens, CVL 25) in the southwestern and western Pacific in 1943 and 1944. He later attended the University of Illinois, graduating in 1950. Following a career in regional sales with carpet companies in the midwest, southwest, and mid-Atlantic states, he entered real estate sales, earning qualification as a real estate appraiser. Daniel managed federal real property for the Department of Veterans Affairs, General Services Administration, and Department of the Navy for the last three decades of his active work life. The defining period of Daniel's life was his wartime Navy experience. He was a member of the commissioning crew (a "plank owner") of USS Cowpens (CVL 25) at Philadelphia on May 28, 1943. Throughout the remainder of 1943 and 1944, he and Cowpens were part of the Navy's campaigns in the Marshall Islands, the Marianas, and the Carolines. He took part in attacks on New Guinea, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Guam and the Philippines, raiding Japanese airfields on Okinawa and Formosa (Taiwan). Cowpens provided critical air cover for the subsequent withdrawal of the crippled cruisers Houston and Canberra, and suffered significant damage at the hands of Typhoon Cobra, a storm that sank three destroyers and cost the ship its radar masts, a motor whaleboat, eight aircraft, and one crewmember, on December 18, 1944. Major fleet actions for Daniel and Cowpens included the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle for Leyte Gulf. For their wartime actions, Daniel and Cowpens were awarded a Navy Unit Commendation. He was a long-time member of American Legion Post 311 in Waterford Township. Daniel is survived by his wife of 23 years, Joanne (Kent), a sister, Wilma (Chiagouris) of Chicago, children Daniel, III, Kevin D., and Vanessa K. (Ott), and grandchildren Nikki L. Warren, Craig S. Lewis, Meilin and Devon Else, Amanda Kent and Kaitlyn Russikoff. Relatives and friends are invited to join the Else families to remember Daniel at a Memorial Service on Saturday, November 19, 2011, 11 AM at the LeRoy P. Wooster Funeral Home. Future interment will be at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations of time or funds be made to Samaritan Healthcare & Hospice of Marlton.