John Junior Fess was born in 1920 and raised in Torrance. The family lived on Arlington Avenue and were long time residents of the community. Fess attended local schools and graduated from Torrance High in the winter class of 1938. He was active in the Boy Scouts and played on the basketball and tennis teams in high school.

According to the Torrance Herald, as a youth Fess had the distinction of being the first and only mascot of the Torrance Fire Department, where his father served for many years. He held the honorary post for eight years and was equipped with a cap, uniform and badge.

After high school, he went to trade school in Los Angeles and worked at a printing office in Glendale, California. He voluntarily signed up for a four year hitch in the United States Navy in 1938 and was trained in diesel engineering at San Diego. He went home for a brief visit in October 1941 before he was shipped to the Hawaiian Islands where he served aboard the U.S.S. Arizona which was based in Pearl Harbor.

On the USS Arizona John Jr. Fess was a Firefighter First Class (F1c). He was at his post when on the morning of December 7, 1941 the Arizona set off its air raid alarms at 07:55 am and the ship went into general quarters. Shortly after 08:00 Japanese aircraft bombed the Arizona causing a catastrophic explosion. 1,177 crewmen were lost. Among them was Fireman First Class John Junior Fess.

His family was notified on January 9, 1942 that he was recorded as missing. Then on January 24, 1942 the War Department informed the family “after exhaustive search it has been impossible to locate your son… therefore he has been officially declared to have lost his life in the service of his country as of December 7, 1941.” His family subsequently received his certificate and medal for the Purple Heart.

Fireman First Class Fess is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific as well as the Torrance Veterans Memorial.