Rev. George Fox ’32

Illinois Wesleyan Holds Veterans’ Day Ceremony

November 8, 2004

BLOOMINGTON, Ill — Members of the Illinois Wesleyan community joined by the University’s Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) will hold a brief ceremony to honor Illinois Wesleyan alumni who have died in the service of their country on Nov. 11, 2004 (Thursday) at 11:30 a.m. on the Eckley Quadrangle.

In addition to reading the names of all the Illinois Wesleyan war dead and placing a wreath in their honor, the ceremony will include brief remarks by Dean of Students Jim Matthews about the heroic actions of Rev. George Fox, a 1932 Illinois Wesleyan graduate who was one of the "Four Immortal Chaplains."

Fox and the other other chaplains — a Protestant like Fox, a Catholic and a Jew — gave up their life jackets to save troops from the Dorchester, which was torpedoed off Greenland in 1943. Former Washington Post foreign correspondent Dan Kurzman published No Greater Glory: The Four Immortal Chaplains and the Sinking of the Dorchester in World War II earlier this year. On November 10, the Hallmark Channel will air a special, The Four Chaplains, on the national cable network.

Each senior member of the Illinois Wesleyan ROTC Corps will receive a copy of Kurzman's book as part of Thursday's ceremony.