GREENFIELD — The Brewer-Culley VFW Post 2693 established a scholarship endowment fund with the Hancock County Community Foundation.
The scholarship honors Robert Culley and Theodore Brewer, who both lost their lives defending their country.
In 1942, Greenfield native Robert Culley was aboard the USS Langley in the Battle of the Java Sea during World War II. Culley was a chief electrician’s mate in the U.S. Navy, who enlisted soon after graduating from Greenfield High School in 1927. "Bob," as many called him, was aboard the USS Langley when it was attacked by Japanese airplanes and sunk. Many were rescued and transferred to the Tanker Pecos, however, the vessel was destroyed. Culley was pronounced missing and was never found. Culley was declared killed in action on Dec. 15, 1945, roughly three years after the attack.
Culley was the first person from Hancock County pronounced missing in World War II.
In 1944, the Brewer-Culley Unit was formally instituted at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Building to honor Culley and Theodore Brewer, also a local Hancock County resident, who was the first boy from Greenfield to die in combat during World War I.
The scholarship will be awarded to high school students who are of direct relation to an honorably discharged veteran or active member of the U.S. military.
