Age 25. 1321 Michigan Avenue, Gladstone, MI. Born on 10/18/1917, in Rhinelander, WI. Died of burns (death certificate). Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, attached to the Army Signal Corps. Attending Army Radar School at Harvard University (rooming locally in Cambridge, MA). Was known as "Bill." At the club with Miss Paula Ahola (Born 12/06/1921. Died as Pauline S. Whippen on 10/11/1998, age 76. Last residence Hobe Sound, FL) and Miss Irja Jacobson (Born 11/24/1921. Died as Irja J. Sheppard on 10/20/2001, Needham, MA, age 79), both age 21, both of Gloucester, MA, and Ensign John Cobb, U.S.N.R., age 24, of Green Bay, WI, the latter also in special military training at Harvard. Both men died, women survived. Was previously acquainted with Ensign Cobb through a younger sister (not present) who was employed in the Wisconsin home city of his fellow ensign. Mixed-gender foursome was seated in the northwest corner of the cellar Melody Lounge. Miss Jacobson (as Mrs. Irja Sheppard) revealed to the 4/03/2000 Boston Herald that a palm tree flared up "not ten feet" from their table. Latter was interviewed in the 2001 Canadian documentary TV series, Disasters Of The Century (quote): "There was a mob scene...So I hung on to the coattails of this fellow, Bill. Well...he elbowed me as if to say, 'Look, everybody for themselves...'" Was referred to indirectly in The Boston Globe, 12/01/1942, by sports columnist Vern Miller, who was lodging in Cambridge: "Two weeks ago a young lieutenant from Michigan, just married, took the room next door to me...Yesterday [Monday] they came for his belongings. He, too, perished in the Cocoanut Grove disaster." Graduated the past spring from Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI. His bride, the former June L. LaLande (Born 10/15/1918. Died as June L. Hawkinson on 6/25/2008, Kingsford, MI, age 89), married on September 12, in Cambridge, was not present (was misreported as "single" on his military-informed death certificate). His young wife would outlive her victim husband of two months by another 65 years and 7 months. Was one of two Grove fire casualties from Michigan (also Ensign John W. "Jack" Edwards, U.S.N.R., age 23). Closely matches the mixed-party description (and table location) of a "soldier" witnessed to have unscrewed a Melody Lounge light bulb (former Miss Jacobson to the above Canadian documentary: "...We sat directly under the palm tree where it all started," and to the 4/03/2000 Boston Herald: The busboy reached "over my head" to fix the bulb). Fire-start connection with his party was inferred but was never verified. Parents Mr. and Mrs. Edward J. and Clara D. (Kraus) Roland, same Michigan address. Burial at Gardens of Rest Memorial Park, Wells, MI. Middle name James.

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