Biography
Born in Nebraska to Harold and Lillian Pike, Donald Pike's family migrated as farmhands, first to Oregon, then to Julian and Ramona, California mountain communities east of San Diego, where the family of nine children helped support the family by working in the corn fields. Pike dropped out of school and left home at age 14 to live in a boarding house while continuing to work as a farm laborer, then as a stock boy in a department store and, at one point, as a Western Union messenger boy. According to the Los Angeles Daily Journal, he became a millionaire in his 60s from land investments.
During World War II, at age 18, he joined the United States Merchant Marine, enlisting as an Ordinary Seaman, sailing on the S.S. J. Maurice Thompson, S.S. Alexander Lillington and S.S. Robert Toombs during two stints overseas. He was first released from active duty, with the rank of Quartermaster Third Class, in 1942. He rejoined the Merchant Marine in 1943 and was officially discharged in 1944.
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