Widener marks 100th anniversary of WWI’s end
CHESTER >> Widener University marked the 100th anniversary of the close of the Great War by building a new feature around its longstanding Veterans Day observance. This year, the ceremony was held in the middle of a daylong symposium covering the rationale, impact and legacy of World War I.
The ceremony was moved due to inclement weather from outside of the campus’ Old Main, which housed its predecessor institution Pennsylvania Military College, to a presentation room in the University Center. There John H. Tilelli, Jr., retired United States Army four-star general, Class of 1963, provided the keynote address.
“I can’t help but think that those men and women who answered our nation’s call, especially those who serve today,” Tilelli said. “As I stand here before you, I guarantee you there are men and women living in some of the worst places in the world. These are less than 1 percent (of the U.S. population) … they’re less than 1 percent supporting the 99 percent who choose not to serve.”
In his closing remarks, Tilelli read from a letter written by a soldier serving under him when he commanded the 1st Cavalry Division during the Persian Gulf War. Writing to his mother the day before his battalion entered Iraq, he told her “Mom, it’s show time … I’m very scared, but I’m confident in my faith, equipment and training.”
Tilelli gave the epilogue that the day after the invasion the solider would posthumously receive the Silver Star.
“Veterans throughout history have embodied the ideals on which America was founded,” he said. “Selfless sacrifice to others, country before self, men and women of character and courage.”
Cadets from the Widener University U.S. Army ROTC Dauntless Battalion were on hand to perform a wreath laying ceremony. “Veterans Day means that we get to recognize an elite member of our society, and that is the 1 percent of people who serve and choose to serve our country,” Company Commander Justin O’Brien said following the ceremony. “It gives us (Dauntless Battalion) the opportunity … to come together as a community and honor those who served in prior years, and honor those who are going to serve in the future.”
The Veterans Day ceremony was joined this year by a daylong symposium featuring Widener faculty and guests from the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center marking the centennial of the Armistice on Nov. 11.
The symposium was organized by a committee of university history faculty, administration and Pennsylvania Military College Committee members. “With the great work at the PMC museum with its World War I exhibit and with the national movement towards the celebration of the end of WWI, we had a natural fit and a niche for this,” said Katie Herschede, Ed.D., university office of the president chief of staff.
“It was a great day for Widener,” said Department of History Chair Rachel Batch, Ph.D. “As a historian I like to have people remember, understand and learn new things, and I think we’re doing that today.”
The symposium featured Widener Assistant Professor of History Richard Hopkins, Ph.D., speaking on “Voilà les Américains: The Experience of the FrancoAmerican Alliance in WWI” and university Scholar-inResidence Sahr ConwayLanz, Ph. D., on “Woodrow Wilson Chooses War.”
The school welcomed guests from the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, arranged through the work of Tom Vossler with the center, a 1968 classmate of Pennsylvania Military College Museum Committee Chairman Ron Romanowicz. Molly Bompane, Curator of Arms and Ordnance at the Army Heritage Museum, spoke on “The Post-WWI U.S. Occupation of the Rhineland,” and Jim McNally, Curator of Military Art, on “Inspiring a Nation: The Poster Art of World War I.”
The ceremony concluded with a reception at the Pennsylvania Military College Museum on campus, showcasing it’s World War I exhibit highlighting notable members of the nearly 300 PMC alumni and cadets who served in combat or other aspects of the war effort.