Memorial Day: Remembering Knox Veterans, the Knox "Victory"

In all, ninety-seven Knox College alumni and one faculty member died serving in the armed forces during World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam.

Knox's Memorial Gymnasium, built in 1950, was named in honor of sixty Knox College alumni who died in World War II. Subsequent research revealed three additional names that were added to the memorial display in the gymnasium lobby, when it was rededicated in 2003.
Full Story...

While no Knox alumni are recorded as having served in the Merchant Marine -- and service in the Merchant Marine does not bring status as a veteran -- more than 9,000 volunteer sailors died in World War II, almost four-percent of those who served -- "a greater percentage of fatalities than any branch of the armed forces," according to the National Park Service. How a World War II "Victory ship" came to be named after Knox College, and a couple of Liberty ships after famous 19th-century Knox alumni, is a mini-journey through American history.
Full Story...

More veterans are featured in these stories from past issues of Knox Magazine:

Service to Country
The first issue of Knox Magazine, October 1917, listed all of the Knox alumni serving in the armed forces during World War I. For the Fall 2006 issue, Knox Magazine interviewed three Knox alumni serving in the armed forces -- Maj. Julian Bond '91, Lieut. Nick Stojanovich '00, and Sgt. John Doyle '02.
Full Story...

Dodging the "Bloody and Invisible Hand" of War
World War II came between two Knox alumni, George H. Brown and Masahiko Kawamura. In this memoir, Brown recalls his combat duty in the Pacific and how he eventually reunited with his friend in Japan after the war.
PDF reprint from Knox Magazine

A Matter of Honor
In 2001, while visiting Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, Martha Jacobsen Roskam, '51, bought some American military "dog tags" from a street vendor. She and her husband "Swede" Roskam '51 determined that they were genuine, dating from the Vietnam War. With the help of their son, U.S. Congressman Peter Roskam, they have been able to return most of the tags to their owners, or their next of kin.
PDF reprint from Knox Magazine

Gold Star Memorial
In October 1945, Knox Magazine included a listing of Knox alumni who died in World War II. Carter Davidson, president of Knox from 1936 to 1946, wrote that "the names of the sixty Knox men herein memorialized tell the tragic story of our Second World War as it affected one small college in a nation of more than a thousand colleges..."
PDF reprint from Knox Magazine

Display in Memorial Gymnasium