Rash's Surname Index
Notes for James Mifflin LARGE
PHILA. BANKER, CIVIC LEADER, HERO OF WORLD WAR II
James M. Large, 83, a Philadelphia banker, civic leader and hero of World War II, died Thursday evening at Bryn Mawr Convalescent Terrace. He lived in Villanova.
Mr. Large, who retired as chairman of the board of the Provident National Bank and the Provident National Corp., was active with the bank and its predecessors for more than 40 years.
A graduate of the Lawrenceville School and Princeton University, he was hired as a runner for the Tradesmen's National Bank & Trust Co. in 1928. He later served as clerk and cashier.
Promotion followed promotion and a few days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he became a vice president. He also became an officer in the Naval Reserve, assigned to the aircraft carrier Princeton.
Built on a hull originally designed for a light, fast 10,000-ton cruiser, the ship was converted to a carrier and commissioned at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Armed with the first Hellcat fighters to see combat, the Princeton sailed into the Pacific.
Mr. Large was air operations officer on the ship, which according to Navy records took part in more engagements than any other carrier in its class.
The landing on Leyte in the Philippines was the Princeton's last engagement. In an attack in Leyte Gulf, about 100 Japanese aircraft hit the Princeton's task force. After the first wave of battle, a single attacker made it through defensive fire while the carrier was launching its torpedo bombers.
A bomb penetrated the flight deck, exploding in the ship's galley on the hangar deck. Fueled aircraft burst into flames. Torpedoes and bombs began exploding. Then a magazine exploded, tearing away the stern of the ship.
Only a handful of men aboard the Princeton escaped injury. Caught in the explosion, Mr. Large, a lieutenant commander, was hit by flying steel that struck his right leg. The air operations officer was reported to be the last man to leave the ship, seeing the wounded off first and helping the skipper, Capt. William H. Buracker, leave his command.
For his coolness in battle, he was decorated with the Silver Star; for his wounds, the Purple Heart.
When another Princeton was commissioned in 1945, Mr. Large was aboard, and he served on the ship until the war ended. He retired from the Navy with the rank of captain.
He was elected executive vice president of the bank in mid-1947. Six months later, he was president. He became chairman of the board in 1957.
In his posts, Mr. Large presided over a series of mergers with institutions such as that with the Land Title & Trust Co.
He found time for civic work as well. He was a life trustee of Thomas Jefferson University and served as its chairman for more than a decade.
He was a former vice president of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, an emeritus director of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia and a former chairman of the United Fund. He was a member of the advisory board for the Philadelphia Crime Commission.
He was a director of PSFS, ESB Inc., Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Co., the South Chester Tube Co. and the Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Co.
Mr. Large was an honorary member of the First City Troop and a member of the Philadelphia Club, former commodore of the Corinthian Yacht Club and a member of the Society of Colonial Wars.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by Moore College of Art and an honorary doctor of law degree by Jefferson Medical College.
Surviving are two sons, James M. Jr. and G. Gordon Meade; a daughter, Elsie Whelen Butterworth, and seven grandchildren.
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