In 1947, two years after WW ll ended, Chestnut Hill community leaders joined together to fund and build a monument to the 81 area soldiers who died in the war and to commemorate all those who served. Planners included Frederick Peck, the renowned landscape architect, who envisioned the memorial area as a peaceful, reflective space filled with beautiful plants and trees. Peck was responsible for designing the memorial and the surrounding paths, along with the terraces and steps that lead from the memorial park to the playing fields below.

The chair of the memorial committee was Sidney Dexter, the first president of the newly formed Chestnut Hill Community Association, who wrote in a letter to the community with “the great hope that you may find it possible to contribute a minimum of $5 toward the monument, … and if $5 is too much, send us as much as you feel able.” Their plan was to exhibit the soldiers' names on a memorial plaque and create a place for rest and reflection. Because of their efforts these many years ago, we now enjoy this lovely area while remembering the sacrifices of the soldiers memorialized there. Recent research is underway to learn more about these soldiers. Here are a few of their stories.

Thomas Meehan

Thomas Meehan lll was the great grandson of the famous botanist and father of Philadelphia parks, Thomas Meehan. Young Tom was a talented artist and as a teenager taught horseback riding along with an accomplished young lady who he came to admire, Anne Shore. They would fall in love and marry in 1942 and, in 1943, soon after the birth of their daughter Barrie, Tom went off to war. Theirs was a very loving relationship and Tom wrote long and eloquent letters expressing his feelings for Anne and signing them “Your Tom.” Anne waited for him along with the daughter who, unfortunately, was destined to grow up never knowing her father. 1st Lieutenant Thomas Meehan, commanding officer of Easy Company, and everyone in the plane with him perished when it was hit by flak and crashed during the epic battle known as D Day on June 6, 1944. The story of Easy Company has been immortalized in Stephen Ambrose’s classic story of the war known as Band of Brothers.

" Dearest Anne,

In a few hours I'm going to take the best company of men in the world into France. We'll give the bastards hell. Strangely I'm not particularly scared, but in my heart is a terrific longing to hold you in my arms.
I love you Sweetheart -forever.

Your Tom "

J. Franklin Meehan

J. Franklin Meehan (1899-1942) was a member of the renowned Meehan family of military heroes. He was the uncle of Thomas Meehan (1921-1944) whose name appears above his on the Chestnut Hill WW ll Memorial plaque. J. Franklin was the younger brother of Thomas Meehan's father Thomas ll (1896-1963), who served in WWl and WWll and would continue his service in the Korean War.

Like his brother Thomas, J Franklin Meehan (B.1899) served in both WWl and WWll. He was a graduate of Lafayette College and married Frances Feiser on March 1, 1935. While a captain in the army air corps in 1942, J. Franklin was killed in a plane crash in Danbury, Connecticut. At the time of his death he was 42 years old and was survived by his wife Frances, daughter, Joanne (B.1938) and one son, J Franklin (B.1940). Another son, Richard Woods Meehan would be born December 1, 1942, just a few days after his father’s death. Many years later the Meehan family legacy of military service and sacrifice would continue. Sadly, Richard Woods Meehan was killed in 1966 while serving in the Vietnam War. His brother, Colonel J Franklin Meehan, was a graduate of West Point who had a distinguished military career which included tours in Korea and Vietnam.

Thomas ll and J Franklin were sons of the renowned landscape architect J. Franklin Meehan (1870 -1938), who was known for his landscape designs, including those of the estates of famous Americans such as Theodore Roosevelt. He also directed the development of landscaping at various public parks and golf courses, including at the historic Cobbs Creek Golf Course, which is a part of the Philadelphia Parks System. The Meehans were also direct descendants of the famous 19th Century botanist Thomas Meehan (1806-1901), who is known as the father of Philadelphia Parks because, among his many other horticultural contributions, he was responsible for the creation of numerous parks throughout the city. It is very fitting that Thomas and J Franklin are memorialized in our lovely Chestnut Hill park!

Joseph Massaro

Another soldier listed on the memorial plaque is Joseph Ettore Massaro. Joe was a proud member of the first graduating class of Jenks School in 1925. Joe would end his education after 8th grade to go to work and help provide for his mom and siblings after the untimely death of his father. Years later, while at war, Joe wrote longingly of the beauty of Chestnut Hill, the friends and family he missed, and how he couldn’t wait to come home when the world was finally at peace. Joe was killed on February 2, 1945, leaving behind a wife and daughter who would never forget him. In remembering her life with her widowed mother Elizabeth, daughter Carol said, “War has many victims, some who were just innocent bystanders.” Nonetheless, Carol describes her childhood in Chestnut Hill as a happy one surrounded by wonderful friends and the Massaro cousins who were like siblings to her.

Joseph Morasco

Another soldier memorialized on the plaque is Joseph Morasco, who had an amazing encounter while fighting in France. It was September 29, 1944 when, by chance, Joe met a friend from home, Tom Galante. Tom told Joe that some soldiers had found a farmhouse that they were going to stay in that night and that Joe should come with him, but Joe said that he would stay with his platoon and would see him later. That was the night Joe was killed. It was many years later, in another chance meeting, this time at the local Acme that Tom, who by then was frail and nearly blind, would tell Joe’s son Jack this amazing story. In reflecting on his dad’s life, Jack says, “He left behind a beautiful young wife Sarah, a son who was 7 months old, loving parents, brothers, sisters and friends. His is a tragedy of a life not lived, with a son he never saw grow up and marry, grandkids who he never knew, friends who never again enjoyed his company - gone but remembered, he was just one man of many thousands of men who never came home from war.”

These are just a few of the soldiers among many whose names appear on the brass plaques at the Water Tower World War ll Memorial. They were the fathers, brothers, and sons, who gave their lives for their country, and they are the grandfathers, great grandfathers, uncles and cousins of many of us who never knew them but cherish their stories nonetheless.

Thomas Phillips

Thomas Phillips was born on September 16, 1924, the youngest child and only son of Blanche and Walter Phillips. Walter worked as a fireman at the Chestnut Hill station and the family was close knit and active in their community. Thomas had two older sisters, Marie who was ten years older and Dorothy, seven years his senior. In photos of him as a child he appears confident and happy. When the war broke out in December, 1941, Thomas was a senior at Northeast Catholic High School. Early in 1942 he made the decision to leave school and join the war effort by enlisting in the marines. He was 17 years old and would need his parents permission to enlist. It must have been a difficult decision for the family.

After completing basic training, Thomas was deployed to the Solomon Islands and was part of a team whose objective was to capture the Japanese airfield on Guadalcanal. In his early days there, Thomas seemed optimistic and wrote home about the good weather and enjoying leisurely swims in the ocean. His letters reveal his teenage interests. He wrote of missing the family dog, Rex. About the new radio he received shortly before enlisting he writes, “I sure miss my new radio. I hardly got to use it,” and, he asks about his school friends, who he imagines are working or looking for jobs. He closes one of his letters as follows: “Well, don’t worry and pray that I’ll be home soon. Give everyone my love and have patience when you don’t hear from me. Lots of love, your son, Thomas.”

In his military diary Thomas recounts more worrisome details, including the relentless assaults by the Japanese and the sinking of ships in the harbor. In one of his last entries he wrote: “Tonight the ships are going to pull out of the harbor, leaving us on the island with what little food and equipment, which was landed on shore with us.” On August 27, 1942, shortly after Thomas wrote this, he was killed in battle. News of his death became official when a letter dated October 3, 1942 arrived at his home. The message was brief and included just two sentences, one of which reads: “There is little I can say to lessen your grief but it is my earnest hope that the knowledge of your son’s splendid record in the service and the thought that he nobly gave his life in the performance of his duty may in some measure comfort you in this sad hour.” Thomas Phillips’ body was never recovered but he and many other soldiers who died are honored at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, which is among the largest in the world.

Henry Lionel Bugay

Henry Lionel Bugay was born in 1914, the eldest of three sons born to Samuel and Rose Bugay. The couple had emigrated from Russia in 1912 and eventually became the successful proprietors of a jewelry store in center city Philadelphia. By 1928 they had moved to Chestnut Hill where they raised their family including, Henry (B1 914), Paul (B 1916), and Milton (B 1920). Henry graduated from Germantown High School and attended Penn State, but after the war broke out in 1941, all three brothers joined the military. Henry entered the navy and served aboard the famous aircraft carrier Saratoga. He was aboard the Saratoga when, near the end of the war, on February 21, 1945, it was severely damaged in a Japanese kamikaze attack.

Here is info from a naval history website (history.navy.mil) about the USS Saratoga and the events of Feb. 21, 1945, the night Henry Lionel Bugay was killed:

“On 29 January 1945 the USS Saratoga was rushed out of Pearl Harbor to join the Fleet at Iwo Jima. After landing rehearsals on Tinian, the carrier force Saratoga was directed to carry out diversionary strikes on the Japanese home islands on the night of 16–17 February. On 21 February, Saratoga was detached with an escort of three destroyers to join amphibious forces and carry out night patrols over Iwo Jima and nearby Chichi Jima. However, as Saratoga approached the area of operations, six Japanese aircraft attacked scoring five hits on the carrier in just three minutes. Saratoga's flight deck forward was wrecked, her starboard side was holed twice, and large fires started in her hangar deck. By that evening, the fires were under control and the ship was able to recover aircraft. The ship lost 123 of her crew as a result of the attacks.”

It was an unfortunate reality of war that the remains of many soldiers were never located, so, after the war, various means to honor those lost were proposed. This led to the creation of National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, which may be the most unique cemetery in existence. It is located in the remnants of an extinct volcano in a beautiful coastal location near Honolulu. For many years before WW ll residents of the area hoped to preserve this beautiful landscape by transforming it into hallowed ground. Soon after the war Congress designated funds to make what is known colloquially as “the punch bowl” into a cemetery and memorial to those soldiers who died in the Pacific Theatre. It has since become one of the most popular tourist attractions in Hawaii where over five million visitors arrive each year to pay their respects and enjoy the site’s natural beauty. Here can be found a series of memorial walls where the names of soldiers lost at sea are inscribed, with Henry Bugay among them.

Many in Chestnut Hill fondly remember Bugay’s Jewelers, which was the classic jewelry store on the avenue for many years. Henry’s brother Milton and his wife Margaret took over the business from Milton’s parents, and the shop was a successful family operated business until closing in 2014. Throughout those many years, passersby would notice each year as Memorial Day approached, that a photo of Henry Bugay, along with his purple heart would sit proudly on display in the shop window. Like many listed on our Chestnut Hill Memorial Plaque, Henry Bugay may be gone but is not forgotten!