BANGOR, Maine — In 1945, when George Peabody was the Bangor City Council chairman and mayor, the city report promised a memorial to honor its residents who had served in World War II, especially those who had sacrificed their lives.
That memorial will finally be erected this fall and dedicated on Veterans Day on the grounds of Cole Land Transportation Museum. The monument is the inspiration of 1958 Mayor Galen Cole, at 86 the city’s oldest living former council chairman, and has the support of current Mayor and Council Chairman Cary Weston, 40.
The black granite has been ordered for the rectangular memorial, which will be engraved by Guernsey Monument with names of more than 110 Bangor men who died in World War II. The monument will stand near the larger Maine World War II Memorial, which was dedicated in 1997 at the museum at 405 Perry Road.
Cole and Weston, whose grandfather Harry Weston Jr. attended Bangor High School with Cole and was a sailor during World War II, have discussed the memorial project in recent months, both inspired by words from the 1945 City Report:
“Your City of Bangor has emerged from this period saddened beyond measure by the loss of 101 of its citizens who gave their lives in its defense, and today stands in full acknowledgment of its debt to them and to the 4,349 others who offered all they had in our behalf and who, in some cases, suffered irreparable physical and mental damage. It is the avowed intention of your city to erect a memorial that will, for a long time yet to come, suitably commemorate the unselfish devotion of these citizens to their fellow man.”
The Bangor men who will be memorialized are buried around the world — among them Charlie Flanagan at Mount Pleasant Cemetery on Ohio Street, Edwin Rattray at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, Raymond Horace Noye at the American Military Cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg.
Cole wants to build the memorial because “something should have been done. It was promised that it would be done, back in 1945.”
“Galen reached out to me, and brought some documents he shared about the memorial,” Weston said. “His desire and excitement to recognize the Bangor boys in World War II are contagious, and I wanted to help someone who has given so much to the community — to help realize the dream.”
Cole was prepared to have the museum, a 501(c)3 charity, pay the full cost of the project, probably no more than $20,000, but Weston encouraged him to allow businesses, organizations and individuals from the community to make contributions, as well.
The museum founder is thrilled with the young man’s enthusiasm. “To have the mayor of the city of Bangor get behind it helps with community support to get the proper recognition of all those boys — to be permanently displayed in one place,” he said.
City councilors of long ago took the step that is providing information for the planned memorial, according to Bill Cook, local history librarian at Bangor Public Library.
“At the end of World War II, the City Council commissioned the Bangor Book of Honor to remember those who died in the war,” Cook said.
“Bangor Remembers Her Sons Who Died for Victory,” the inscription reads. The book is displayed in a case near the library’s circulation desk. Families were asked to share a picture and information on each serviceman. A different page is displayed each day.
It is the library’s list of 110 Bangor men in the Book of Honor that the Cole Museum will use as the basis for information to be engraved on the monument — with a few additions. The list of Bangor men killed in World War II will include not only Bangor residents, Cole said, but people such as Fred Otis of Veazie, who was a Bangor High School student before joining the service and being killed in the Battle of Normandy.
Those who can help document that a Bangor resident — or someone who attended Bangor High or John Bapst before joining the service — died in World War II are asked to provide the name and information in writing, and phone number for the submitter. Send information to Roxanne Saucier, Cole Land Transportation Museum, 405 Perry Road, Bangor 04401, or roxanne.saucier@yahoo.com. Questions may be sent to those addresses or called in to 907-0608. The deadline for submitting new names to the list of Bangor men killed in World War II is 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21.
Contributions to help build the “Bangor Remembers” memorial may be dropped off at Cole Museum or sent to the same address, marked “Bangor Remembers.” The museum is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Admission is $7 adults, $5 seniors, free to everyone 18 and under.
Bangor men killed during World War II
Ashworth, Leonard Victor Jr.
AuCoin, J. Edgar
Ayer, Donald Holman
Babbain, Joseph J. Jr.
Barker, Donald Llewellyn
Bean, Charles Albert
Bertels, Bernard Joseph Jr.
Black, Philip James
Blake, Edgar Vincent
Blethen, Lawrence R.
Bradt, Wilber Elmore
Breen, Harold
Budway, John N.
Burgess, William G. Jr.
Burke, Ernest A.
Burns, Kenneth R.
Cassidy, James Daniel Jr.
Chase, Theodore J.
Chisholm, Edward Francis
Clapp, Ralph Louis
Coffin, John Leslie Jr.
Comstock, Horace Nathan
Condon, Merle Lawrence
Corey, John Francis
CoWallis, Lauren L.
Crawford, Walter L. Sr.
Cullinan, Dennis T. Jr.
Cunningham, Ralph Linley Jr.
Curran, John Francis
Cyr, Bernard J.
Doggett, Harry V. Jr.
Dunphey, Claire Frederic
Dyer, Alonzo
Eames, Paul H. Jr.
Eaton, Harold G.
Faulkingham, James Alton
Ferguson, Joseph Henry
Fessenden, Charles Albert
Flagg, Ferd Charles
Flanagan, Charles Augustine
Flood, James Edward Jr.
Fogg, Donald Herbert
Follett, John R.
Frye, Harrison William
Gallupe, Arthur Duncan
Gerrish, Rodney J.
Getchell, Howard William
Giles, Lawrence M.
Graffam, Thomas R.
Grant, Robert P.
Hackett, Carl Owen
Hendrickson, Willis Ellwood
Hopkins, Edward R.
Howe, Benjamin Jr.
Jansson, Carl Joseph
Jones, Richard Brooks
Kane, Thomas P.
Keezer, Frederick Paul
Keith, Austin Rodney
Kelley, Arnold R.
Kelley, John Coney
Kilpatrick, Donald Murray Jr.
Kobritz, Joseph Herbert
MacDonald, Harry Lester
MacKaye, James Stewart
Marsh, Guy Jr.
McDougal, Miles B. Jr.
McGee, Thomas Frederick
McGlauflin, Wallace Henry
McKinnon, Donald Aldrich
Montgomery, Shelley Doyle
Morrill, Charles W.
Murphy, Frederic Coleman
Noye, Raymond Horace
Olson, Vaughn Reginald
Orr, W. Carleton
Otis, Fred
Pendleton, Fields Seeley III
Perkins, Linwood W.
Peterson, Charles F. Jr.
Pomeroy, George
Price, Arnold Perry
Ranks, Eugene John
Rattray, Edwin D.
Reynolds, Kenneth P.
Richard, John Allen
Richards, George T.
Robinson, Lloyd Kenneth
Robinson, Waldo E. Jr.
Rogers, George Henry
Ryder, Gerald Constantine
*Sarnoski, Joseph R.
Scherer, Ralph A.
Slager, Harold Arthur
Small, Charles Edward
Smith, Edward G.
Snodgrass, James A.
Spragg, Carl S.
St. Germain, Glenn
Stimpson, Arthur F.
Strang, Garland Louis
Striar, Bernard
Strout, Gerald Decker
Taylor, Charles John
Treworgy, W. Stuart
Walls, Max E.
Watson, George Ellis
Willette, John A.
Williams, Eugene Vincent
Wilson, Nelson Edwards
Withee, Aubrey Francis
Yerxa, Renfrew A.
* Medal of Honor
Very beautiful thing being done, but it should have been done much sooner. Our WWII Veterans are passing on more than ever these days. The average age has to be 87 years old or so, and upward as far as they can go on before passing on. They’ve deserved a place to mourn their fellow Veterans who’ve passed on, for a while now.
I am very happy to see this being done, but it would have been nice if it were done sooner. Sorry but had to say it. My dad was in WWII and these issues are close to my heart.