DOB/DOD: January 10, 1928 (Stamford, CT) – May 18, 2004 (Norwalk, CT); 76 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Married Rose F. Neil on February 21, 1953, in Greenwich, CT. Married Marjorie Andrus on November 26, 1960, in North Canaan, CT. Married Janet Cowperthwait (1937-1993) on July 29, 1966, in Westport, CT.
CHILDREN: Five sons, Charles R. (1959-), Daniel W. (1963-1964), Lee A. (1967-), John (1970-), and Philip L. (1973-). One daughter, Amy Jane Corbo (1969-1971).
LOCAL ADDRESSES: 13 Silk Street and 85 Gregory Boulevard
ENLISTMENT: August 3, 1948
SERVICE NUMBER: ER1165141
DISCHARGE: July 27, 1951
UNIT: Company B, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division
FAMILY: Born to Anthony (1902-1967) and Grace Mezzo Corbo (1905-1995). One sister, Gloria Rose Corbo Stone (1924-2016). Two brothers, Robert (1926-2016) and Thomas (1931-2010).
DECORATIONS: Awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart Medal.
OTHER: Served on the Norwalk Fire Department 1961-1995.
Norwalk High School Class of ’46
Photos contributed by Chris Novak, a friend of the Corbo family.
From The Norwalk Hour April 14, 1952
NORWALKER’S SERVICE IN KOREA RECOGNIZED
With the 3rd Infantry Division in Korea — Sergeant Leroy D. Corbo of 31 Silk Street, Norwalk, Connecticut, has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service in Korea. Sgt Corbo, who was a member of Company B in the 3rd Division’s 7th Infantry Regiment, rotated to the United States last year. He has also earned the Purple Heart Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge. The Bronze Star was presented in recognition of Corbo’s outstanding service from November 17, 1950, to June 17, 1951.
From The Norwalk Hour October 23, 1952
Sergeant Leroy D. Corbo, son of Mr. and Mrs. Arvid Anderson of 12 Horton Street, was recently awarded the Bronze Star Medal. Sergeant Corbo, a member of Company B, Seventh Infantry Division, 3rd Infantry Division, was cited for meritorious service in connection with military operations in Korea from November 17, 1950, to June 17, 1951. In part, the citation states that Sergeant Corbo “performed his duties in a superior manner,” giving replacements assigned to his squad “full benefit of his own combat knowledge and experience, enabling them to meet and overcome the obstacles and difficulties encountered on the battlefield. Sergeant Corbo also holds the Purple Heart Medal which was awarded for wounds received in the Korean action. He is a graduate of Norwalk High School and was a member of the basketball team for three years.
From The Norwalk Hour May 20, 2004
Leroy D. Corbo of Gregory Boulevard, a retired Norwalk firefighter who earned the Bronze Star for bravery in the Korean War and was an outstanding local athlete in his youth and young adulthood, died Tuesday at 76 in Norwalk Hospital after a six-year battle with cancer, his family said. Mr. Corbo served two stints with the U.S. Army, the first immediately after his graduation from Norwalk High School in 1947 and the second as a reservist shortly after the Korean War began in 1950. During the second hitch, he became engaged in heavy fighting along the Yalu River in the spring of 1951 with the famed 3rd Infantry Division when the Chinese Reds entered the war with a furious assault by hundreds of thousands. The American units had to fall back, and in the confusion, communication with relatives back home was suspended. Families were in the dark for months about the fate of their loved ones, the Corbo family among them. It was early May before they learned through an odd development their son and brother were alive. A friend reported seeing his picture in the May 7 edition of Life magazine. (The one they always remembered with actress Phyllis Kirk on the cover.) Sergeant Corbo was caught opening a can of K-rations with his bayonet during a lull in the fighting.
The caption identified him as Sgt. Carbo, a mix-up in the vowels that fortunately didn’t change his Italian ethnicity. He was awarded the Bronze Star for bravery and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge for the close-quarter fighting that typified the campaign. A shrapnel wound of the leg brought him the Purple Heart. The Korean experience was a far cry from his first service stint at Fort Myers, Virginia, where he was a member of the Presidential Honor Guard, an assignment that regularly placed him in formal settings at the Arlington National Cemetery and as a sentry at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The selection was natural for the handsome six-footer of trim build. Even before entering Norwalk High School in 1944, Mr. Corbo had established his athletic credentials as a member of the Rangers AC., an adolescent group in the lower end of South Norwalk. He made such an impression as a basketball player at Benjamin Franklin Junior High School that he was picked for the NHS varsity quintet as a sophomore. The team was 8-7 that year of 1945, but as a junior, he helped lead the Green and White to the state Class A tournament for the first time in history on the strength of an 11-6 record that included a 54-53 victory over previously undefeated Greenwich High School. He contributed 74 points to the effort during that 1946 season from a starting guard position. As co-captain in his final year, he was a high scorer, but the team as a whole wasn’t as strong, and after winning the opener, they lost the remaining 17 games. The NHS Fathers’ Club picked him as the outstanding basketballer, however. When not in service during his early adulthood, Mr. Corbo played for a wide variety of local quintets, where he displayed a deadly jump shot that was unusual for the period. He helped the Norwalk YMCA, O’Brien’s Emeralds, and the Yankee Metal teams to titles. He later performed for the Laurels, Colonials, and Norwalk Fire Department. While at Ft. Myers, he had led his unit to the Army divisional basketball title, too. “Leroy was very good on the basketball court,” recalled retired Connecticut Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert J, Callahan, who played with him on the 1946 and 1947 NHS teams. “I remember his jump shot that was so distinctive at the time.” The son of the late Anthony Corbo and the late Grace Mezzo Corbo Anderson was born in Stamford on January 10, 1928, but raised at 85 Woodward Avenue. He had been a member of the Frank C. Godfrey Post 12, American Legion; Pietro Micca Lodge, Sons of Italy, the St. Ann Club; and the Norwalk Firefighters’ Union, Local 830. Mr. Corbo retired from the Norwalk Fire Department in 1995 after 34 years of service. His son, Charles R. Corbo of Norwalk, is also a Norwalk firefighter, while another son, Lee A. Corbo of Shelton is a lieutenant with the Fairfield Fire Department. He is survived by two other sons, John Corbo and Philip L. Corbo, both of Norwalk; two brothers, Robert A. Corbo and Thomas R. Corbo, both of Norwalk; a sister, Gloria Corbo Stone of Vista, N.Y.; five grandchildren, Diana, Christopher, Shannon, April and Erin and several nephews and nieces. Mr. Corbo was predeceased on August 3, 1993, by his wife of 27 years, Janet Cowperthwaite Corbo, a registered nurse of dynamic personality who had been widely admired during her 35-year career at Norwalk Hospital. He was also predeceased by a daughter, Amy Jane Corbo; a son, Daniel; and his stepfather, Arvid Anderson. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday in St. Thomas the Apostle. Interment with military honors will be in St. John Cemetery, Richards Ave. Friends may call at the Collins Funeral Home, 91 East Avenue, from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday. Memorial donations may be made to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, c/o St. Thomas the Apostle Church, 203 East Avenue, East Norwalk, 06854.
Buried in St. John’s Cemetery, 223 Richards Avenue, Norwalk, Connecticut; Section 3, Row 5, Lot 186. Photo by webmaster.
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