Honoring Those
Who Served Our Nation |
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November 6, 2012,
Volume 59, No. 11 |
In 1952, Penn dedicated a flagpole—now at the west end of Shoemaker Green—with a statuary base and a surrounding bench as a war memorial. “The University of Pennsylvania—To Her Sons Who Died in the Service of Their Country, 1740-1952” is etched into the wall. The memorial, just north of Franklin Field on 33rd Street, was the first of many gifts of the late Walter H. Annenberg, W’31, H’66 (Almanac October 8, 2002). The dedication took place 60 years ago on a rainy Saturday in November, before the Penn-Army football game.
The war memorial, with its five oversized bronze figures—three male and two female—encircling a steel flag pole, has a huge black octagonal granite base and a limestone wall with the above inscription. The sculptor was Charles Rudy, a Guggenheim fellow (1904-1986) and the architect was Penn alumnus, Grant Simon, 1911, (1887-1967).
In 1998, on the occasion of its 55th reunion, the Class of 1943 funded the restoration of the memorial and rededicated it. A plaque was added: to honor “all from the University of Pennsylvania who served in our nation’s wars and to its classmate private first class Frederick C. Murphy, W’43, 65th infantry division, US Army, who gave his life in the line of duty at Saarlautern, Germany, March 18, 1945 and was awarded his country’s Medal of Honor for his unquenchable spirit of self-sacrifice and supreme devotion to duty.”
When Penn opened Shoemaker Green earlier this semester (Almanac September 25, 2012), a refurbished memorial awaited visitors, with rebuilt steps and wing wall, a repointed landing and new plantings and curbing to set it off from the walkway. It is now more visible and prominent.
Related: Update; The Nature of Proof: A Symposium—November 9; Netter Center 20th Anniversary Conference: November 12-13 |