QC adds cyber memorial to fallen

Institutions of higher learning in New York City aren’t exactly known for a great interest in things military - not so at Queens College (QC) in Flushing.
Two years ago, a World War II memorial was erected on the campus - funded by alumnus and veteran Arnold Franco - to honor the 58 QC students and one staff member who died in the conflict.
Now the school has launched a website, www.qc.edu/history/wwiiveterans, that pays tribute not only to those who died, but also to the surviving veterans, whose numbers are quickly diminishing.
“Of the original 977 identified QC student and alumni veterans [of that war], fewer than 200 are still alive,” said Bobby Wintermute, a history professor and faculty advisor to the QC history club.
Over 60 percent of QC students either enlisted or were called to duty during the Second World War, Wintermute explained, including 942 out of a class of 1,600 after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941.
For the memorial project, students from the QC history club “spent countless hours researching the lives and untimely deaths of these young men who served their nation,” Wintermute explained.
Visitors to the site will find short profiles of the 58 students who died in the bloodiest war in history, including available information such as birth and college enrollment dates; military records such as entry date, serial number, branch, unit and rank; their medals and awards, where and when they were killed and where they’re buried.
Designed by Jae Lee, a QC student, “the site will function as an organic record of the WWII experience and a living, online memorial to those in the QC community who served and sacrificed for our country,” Wintermute said.
It also features a world map that pinpoints each vet’s service location; essays by club members that describe the memorial project and the college’s involvement in the war effort; WWII snapshots from the National Archives; and digitized QC yearbooks from the 1940s.
Funding for the web site came from State Senator Serphin Maltese, a Korean War veteran, who lost his seat to Joseph Addabbo, Jr. in the last election.
The site will be continually updated with material from survivors, including photos, memoirs, letters, and transcripts of oral interviews, according to Wintermute.
“Like the WWII veterans memorial project, this website is the product of hundreds of hours of research by the history club’s student members,” he said.