BY LIZA STRAUSS
On Nov. 10 in Kemper Park, the Larchmont/Mamaroneck community observed Veterans Day at the annual Veterans Day Ceremony, hosted by The Richard Kemper Foundation.
Seventy-five faculty members and a large number of students gathered around the Kemper Memorial located in front of MHS and joined to pay tribute to the veterans who served our country in war.
Before the ceremony commenced, 70 eighth graders in Hommocks teacher Richard Darcy’s social studies classes each traced a name from the monument onto a piece of paper as part of their Kemper Memorial research project.
The ceremony opened with Mamaroneck World War II veteran Tony Marsella leading attendees in “America the Beautiful.”
In his speech, Superintendent of Schools Paul Fried expressed his appreciation that Kemper Park stands to acknowledge our veterans.
School Board President, Linnet Tse, spoke of her father’s service as a World War II veteran and shared her memory of onlookers in the airport applauding as soldiers walked by. Tse asked attendees to “take a moment to thank our veterans, young and old.”
MHS social studies teacher, Kathleen Donnison, read a poem she wrote entitled “Veteran’s Day Eve 2009” to honor America’s veterans.
MHS teachers Shannon Porter and Janice Landrum read poems by former Larchmont resident Joyce Kilmer, who was a sergeant of the 165th US Infantry Regiment and was killed at the second battle of Marne in 1918.
The ceremony closed with MHS sophomore Danny Fiddelman, who played “taps” on the trumpet.
In 1945, the Kemper Memorial park was donated to the Mamaroneck School District by the Adolph Kemper family in memory of their son, Richard, who was killed in Normandy. In the center of the park stands a granite monument, engraved with the names of the 99 individuals from the Mamaroneck School District who died in service during World War II.
In reference to the park, MHS history teacher Mary Cronin said, “This is a wonderful place to celebrate and recognize the veterans.”
The Kemper initiative expanded in 2000 when Richard Kemper’s nephew, Paul Cantor, proposed the idea of the Richard Kemper Memorial essay contest that would allow students to write about “the values that these men lost their lives defending.”
The Kemper Foundation, which was formed in 2008, will sponsor its tenth annual essay contest this year. The Foundation, Cantor said, “will promote human rights education” and “sponsor any other activities related to working towards a just and peaceful world.”
Jan Northrup, the president of the Kemper Memorial Park Preservation Fund (KMPPF), said that it is the fund’s “goal to heighten awareness of the significance of the park, the monument and the 99 individuals who are honored there.”
Northrup added, “We have been researching the veterans’ names and have been finding out more about them: where they lived; who their siblings were; how they were killed; their whole story.”
As part of the research that has been done, it was discovered that Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report” has two uncles, Edward Tuck and Fred Motz, on the monument.
Last summer, MHS senior Derek Ward served as the KMPPF World War II research scholar, completing eighty hours of extensive historical research on the 99 individuals recognized on the memorial.
While interning, Ward found the pictures and biographical information for two more Kemper honorees. However, 14 of the honorees’ photos are still missing and the KMPPF is in need of students willing to conduct internet research to find the photos.
