From the Collection: Pharmacist’s Mate Joseph Klein
by Aidan Sigmund
The WWII Veterans History Project recently acquired artifacts from the family of U.S. Navy veteran Joseph Klein, who served as a Pharmacist's Mate during World War II. The collection includes original photographs, military documents, uniforms, insignia, and other artifacts documenting his service at the Naval Hospital in Brooklyn and the Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School at Columbia University. Together, these items offer a firsthand glimpse into the experiences of a Navy hospital corpsman and pharmacist serving on the home front during the Second World War.
Joseph Klein was born on July 15, 1915, in Schenectady, New York, the son of Harry Klein and Pauline Klein (née Wiener). His parents were born in Hungary and were members of the nation's sizable Jewish population. Harry arrived in America in 1890 and Pauline in 1902. The two met in New York and were married in the summer of 1914. Following his graduation from Schenectady's Mount Pleasant High School, Joseph began attending Albany College of Pharmacy in Albany, New York.
At college, Joe was a member of Rho Pi Phi, the Junior Prom Committee, and the Mortar & Pestle Society. The Alembic Pharmakon yearbook described him as a "silver-tongued orator" and noted that "if success bears any relation to hard work, he will make good." Joseph graduated from the college in 1937 and returned to Schenectady, where he opened his own pharmacy, Kay's Drugs.
On May 15, 1943, Joseph enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve at Albany, New York, with the rate of Apprentice Seaman. Following his initial training at the U.S. Naval Training Station in Sampson, New York, he was promoted to Pharmacist's Mate, 3rd Class, and transferred to the Naval Hospital in Brooklyn on August 10, 1943. Joe remained on the hospital's staff until October 1943, when he was assigned to the short-lived Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School at Columbia University in New York City. Organized in 1940, the Midshipmen's School was intended to train a large number of Naval Reserve officers at an accelerated pace.
Numerous colleges across the United States helped host the program, which was dissolved following the end of hostilities in 1945. During Joe's time at the Midshipmen's School, he often served at nearby St. Albans Naval Hospital in Queens, New York. On January 1, 1944, he was promoted to Pharmacist's Mate, 2nd Class. Before Joseph's full two-year enlistment term was complete, however, a serious case of strep led to his receiving an honorable medical discharge on November 10, 1944. Unfortunately, his time at the Midshipmen's School was also cut short, meaning he was unable to receive his commission as an officer. Nevertheless, Joseph's service was characterized as "excellent," and he was considered a model sailor throughout his naval career.
Joe's time in the Navy brought him another gift as well. In the summer of 1944, while at the Temple Emanu-El USO in Manhattan, he met Ms. Sarah Raskin, who was working as a hostess, and the two quickly fell deeply in love. Following Joseph's discharge from the Navy, they were married on December 17, 1944, at Temple Zion in Schenectady, New York. Having been forced to sell Kay's Drugs in 1943 when he joined the Navy, Joe decided to pick up where he had left off and founded Klein's Pharmacy in Albany, New York, in 1946. Joseph and Sarah continued to operate Klein's Pharmacy together for the next 23 years.
The couple moved to Florida in 1980. There, Joe became an active member of the Delray-area Jewish community, helping establish a Hebrew school at Temple Emeth and participating in the founding of Temple Torah. Joseph Klein passed away on October 27, 2012, at the age of 97. He is buried at Beth Abraham-Jacob Cemetery in Guilderland, New York.
