Herman Fredrick Cordes

Herman Fredrick Cordes

May 30, 1927 - February 7, 2022

U.S. Navy VETERAN WWII

Herman Frederick Cordes, 94 long time Ridgecrest resident passed away peacefully, February 7th 2022 in Ridgecrest, CA.

Herman was born May 30, 1927 in Upland, California, at San Antonio Community Hospital. His parents owned property that included a five-acre Valencia orange grove on 20th Street, just north of Upland. His father was an orange  farmer.

Herman attended Upland Elementary School, Upland Middle School and Chaffee High School. He did not play sports because it hurt when he crashed into anyone.  Herman stated that "You live longer when you're a devout coward," . However, he enjoyed watching football and baseball games.

He went into the Navy for 14 months, just before World War II ended. He was discharged  just before Korea broke out.  While in the Navy, he served on a ship, YW 105, an ocean-going ship that served fresh water to various ships in the harbor at Shanghai and Korean ports. Herman worked in the distribution center, in charge of delivering the water.  He was seasick all the time.

After the service, Herman attended Chaffee Junior College, then Pomona College, where he graduated. After that, he went on to Stanford University, where he earned his doctorate in chemistry.

In 1954.

In 1954 Herman came out to the Naval Weapons Test Station to work as a research chemist, in fuels and explosives. It was mostly theoretical work. He worked at Michaelson Labs. Among His accomplishments were the publications of papers he

At the time, he was living in the Officers' BOQ.  Herman had a group of friends that took up bowling and did things together. They also enjoyed music. Herman grew up during the Big Band Era, and

enjoyed the music of Glen Miller, Artie Shaw, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Jane Fonda, and others. He also enjoyed modern jazz and classical music. He became

interested in it when vinyl records went on sale for about $1 each and would buy 50 of them at a time.

Among his hobbies were catch and release fly-fishing, reading, traveling and photographing his travels, and watching pro ball games.

His most outstanding memories are of the time he and Kinge Okauchi and two other buddies, Gene Curry and Taylor Joyner, took a trip to Denali, Alaska. For the first leg of the trip, they all flew up to the Washington state area in Kinge's plane, then

took a train into Canada to see the zoo and other sights. That was the year that President Kennedy came to the base, in 1963. They missed this visit because of their vacation.

The trip was so much fun they did it again two years later, only this time

they drove all the way up from Ridgecrest to Alaska in Herman's yellow Land Rover and camped out along the way.

Herman retired from the base in 1981, and moved directly into a condo in Ridgecrest. He was the original occupant and lived there until he passed.

For many years Herman and Kinge Okauchi and other friends did Friday dinner at The Lodge or Indian Wells Valley Lodge. Carol Schneider joined these festivities in 2004 along with Gene n Verna, Rich, Terri, Jane...

Herman was able to stay in his home til the end with the help of his friends..

His ashes will be scattered February 24 @9:00 at Desert Memorial Park.

Prepaired by Carol@schneider.org with help of Herman's many friends