Plans for $1 million memorial to the heroic Four Chaplains at Memorial Park move forward

When the memorial to the Four Chaplains who gave their lives during World War II to save their shipmates on the troop transport the USS Dorchester in February 1943 is erected, the memories of the four men will be etched into weathered steel.

But the memorial to the four will include a fifth panel, one honoring another hero of that incident - Charles Walter David Jr. David wasn't a chaplain. He was a crew member on the Comanche, a Coast Guard cutter supporting the Dorchester. David, who was Black, dove into the icy waters off Greenland and saved the lives of 93 of the Dorchester's crew. According to the National World War II Museum, "Even though David was one of the lowest-ranking men on his ship and his own nation considered him a second-class citizen, he willingly put his life at risk to save his fellow Americans."

David died of pneumonia shortly after his heroics.

His story will join those of the Four Chaplains - two Protestant ministers, George L. Fox and Clark V. Poling; Catholic priest John P. Washington; and rabbi Alexander D. Goode, who was from York - in the memorial planned to revitalize the entrance to York City's Veteran's Memorial Park.

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The memorial will be installed on a grassy space just by the entrance to the park at Vander and Rockdale avenues, the current site of the Gold Star Healing & Peace Garden and the black granite memorial honoring veterans who sacrificed their lives for their country from World War I to the Global War on Terror.

At a press conference Monday morning, organizers of the memorial announced it was on pace to begin construction of the memorial by Memorial Day 2025. Work on the $1 million project is expected to be completed by Memorial Day 2026, said community leader Susan Byrnes, whose father and grandfather served during wartime and whose son is a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq war.

Byrnes is working with Cher Kondor, a Gold Star mother who lost her son, Martin, in Iraq in 2004. They had worked together to create the healing and peace garden at the site.

Frank Diffenhafer, whose architectural firm Murphy & Dittenhafer is donating its design services, said the memorial will be composed of five weathered seven-foot-by-five-foot steel plates etched with the stories of the Four Chaplains and David.

He said the memorial is designed to honor their "courage, sacrifice and heroism" and is intended to reflect "this powerful and historical event."

The group has raise $450,000 in pledges and cash so far, Byrnes, said, and is actively soliciting donations.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Plans for $1 million memorial to the heroic Four Chaplains at Memorial Park move forward