Dario Fedric Chavez was born in Chihuahua, Mexico in December 1919 and lived nearly all his life in the Pueblo section of Torrance. He graduated from Fern Avenue (Elementary) School in 1933 where he won the American Legion Medal and Safety Patrol Award. This medal was awarded to a student who excelled in honor, courage, scholarship and citizenship.

He again won the American Legion Medal while attending Torrance High, where he was Sergeant-at-Arms of the Freshman B class for the first semester, a member of the Boys’ League, played on the varsity baseball team and was President of the Junior Class.

Chavez had to leave Torrance High School before graduation to support his mother and younger brother after his father Augustine died. He was employed as a truck driver for a nursery and then at the Columbia Steel Company. He was inducted into the U.S. Army on December 8, 1942 and was sent to a camp in Wyoming where he was a truck driver in the Quartermaster Corps.  

In February 1943, Private Chavez was sent to Oklahoma where on May 1, 1943, he died by accidental drowning at Boiling Springs lake while on maneuvers.  Doctors tried to resuscitate him for almost two hours but were unsuccessful.  He was expected to be home on furlough later in May to see his wife Ernestine and two-month-old daughter Marie whom he had never seen.  

Dario Chavez’s body arrived in Torrance with a military escort. Services were held on May 6, 1943 at the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church at the Pueblo, with burial at the Pacific Crest Cemetery in Redondo Beach.