Early Years
Riefkohl (birth name: Luis Federico Riefkohl Jaimieson) was born and raised in the town of Maunabo, to Luis Riefkohl and Julia Jaimieson. His older brother was Rudolph W. Riefkohl, a Colonel in the United States Army Corps of Engineers, who played an instrumental role in helping the people of Poland overcome the 1919 typhus epidemic. His other siblings were Helen, Emily and Louise Riefkohl. Riefkohl received his primary and secondary education in the towns of Arroyo; Christainsted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin IslandsVirgin Islands and spent three and a half years at Phillips Andover Academy in Boston, Massachusetts. Riefkohl received an appointment on July 5, 1907, from Beekman Winthrop, the U.S. appointed governor of Puerto Rico from 1904 to 1907, to attend the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. In 1911, he became the first Puerto Rican to graduate from the Academy.
During World War I, Lieutenant Riefkohl served as Commander of the Armed Guard of the USS Philadelphia and on August 2, 1917 he was awarded the Navy Cross for engaging an enemy submarine. The Navy Cross is the second highest medal that can be awarded by the U.S. Navy and is awarded to members of the U.S. Navy or U.S. Marine Corps for heroism or distinguished service.
Read more about this topic: Frederick Lois Riefkohl
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or years:
“There is a relationship between cartooning and people like Miró and Picasso which may not be understood by the cartoonist, but it definitely is related even in the early Disney.”
—Roy Lichtenstein (b. 1923)
“There is hardly any contact more depressing to a young ardent creature than that of a mind in which years full of knowledge seem to have issued in a blank absence of interest or sympathy.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)