Carl C. Mermon

Carl Charles Mermon was born on July 3, 1902, in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, to immigrant parents (his father was from Poland and his mother Austria).¹ As a young man Mermon worked in a Pennsylvania coal mine, but in 1937 he moved to Washington, D.C. and found employment as a clerk for the federal government.²

By 1942, Mermon was working for the White House as an engineer. In this role, Mermon helped maintain the various systems at the White House including HVAC, plumbing, refrigeration systems, and movie theater operations. Mermon’s World War II draft card suggests his primary responsibility was maintaining the air conditioning at the White House, for the card lists his occupation as: “U.S. Govt., Engineer at White House (air conditioning).”³ 

Mermon continued at the White House as an engineer until he retired in 1973, having worked under six presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Richard M. Nixon.⁴ Mermon then moved back to Pennsylvania where he passed away at a hospital on July 16, 1973. He was buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Plymouth, Pennsylvania.⁵