Richard Belmont Catton was born in Honolulu on July 12, 1890. He attended Oahu College, now known as Punahou School, and graduated from MIT’s Electrical Engineering program in 1915.
At MIT, he was a member of the swim team and Phi Beta Epsilon fraternity. According to “Technology’s War Record,” the 1920 publication of the Alumni Association of MIT, after graduating from the Institute, he offered his services to the Royal Engineers, but they were not accepted. He attended the Plattsburg officers’ training camp in 1917, and in November, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Aviation Section of the United States Signal Corps.
In June 1918, Catton sailed for France to be employed in the construction of airdromes. In October, he had a severe attack of influenza, recovered sufficiently to leave the hospital, but suffered a relapse. An operation for mastoiditis was necessary, and shortly afterward another from which he died at Savenay, France, on April 14, 1919.
His name is listed on the plaque outside the War Memorial Natatorium for giving his life in the Great War.
