Death could not rob Bob Thurman of the commission he had earned.

Robert Lee Thurman was born on April 22, 1923, in Santa Cruz, California, to Ralph and Wilma Thurman. He attended local grammar schools, Mission Hill Junior High School and on September 11, 1939, entered Santa Cruz High School. He took college preparatory courses in high school and was a star center on the Cardlet football team of 1942.

After graduating from high school, Thurman reported to the Mare Island Navy Yard to enlist in the naval air-cadet-training program. On January 14, 1943, Cadet Thurman began a three-month training program at St. Mary's College, followed by additional instruction at Los Alamitos, California. In December 1943 he began the final phase of his cadet instruction at Pensacola, Florida.

On December 21, 1943, during a training flight, Thurman's plane crashed and he was placed in a hospital. On Christmas Eve 1943, Robert Lee Thurman succumbed to the injuries that he had sustained in the crash. His remains were returned to Santa Cruz for a funeral and interment in Santa Cruz Memorial Park.

In March 1944, his mother, Mrs. Wilma Thurman, received a letter from Washington, D.C. informing her that in recognition of Robert's training service prior to his death, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox had signed the paper-work commissioning Robert Lee Thurman (posthumously) an ensign in the USNR.

(SCHSC Pg. 19; SCSn December 25, 1943 8:2, December 26, 1943, March 31, 1944 1:6)