Donald B. Shank

Donald B. Shank served in World War II in the European Theater. He served for four years.

Mr. Shank was drafted as a Private in July 1942. He advanced to the rank of Sergeant. He then attended Officer Candidate School and was commissioned in December 1942 as Second Lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps (Anti Aircraft).

After the Allies gained air superiority, he requested and was granted a transfer to the Military Railway Service in Europe and attained the rank of Captain.

Mr. Shank was born in 1919 in Biwabik, Minnesota. He graduated from Biwabik High School. He began attending college but had to stop to support his parents when his father became bed-ridden. He found a job as an engine foreman at the Duluth Missabe and Iron Range Railway.

Mr. Shank died on October 12, 1993, in Duluth, Minnesota. He was one of the people who helped save the Duluth Union Depot (later the St. Louis County Heritage & Arts Center) and the S. S. William A. Irvin (flagship of U.S. Steel's Great Lakes Fleet), among others.

Source: Missabe Iron Ranger, Summer 1981; Lake Superior Magazine, August-September 1989; Duluth News Tribune, October 14, 1993

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