 | The Ledyard Flagstaff was moved closer to the Yale War Memorial during the recent renovation of Hewitt Quadrangle. |
The University will salute the Yale men and women who have served their country at a special Veterans Day celebration taking place at 11 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 11, on Hewitt Quadrangle.
The program will include a ceremony rededicating the newly renovated plaza and Ledyard Flagstaff, as well as a special tribute to John T. Downey '51 B.A., who was captured during the Korean War and held as a prisoner for 20 years, and who has been a distinguished, long-term Superior Court judge in New Haven.
The public is invited to attend the ceremony. Special invitations have also been sent to the over 100 staff and faculty who served in U.S. military forces, as well as current R.O.T.C. students and members of the Class of 1951.
"Yale graduates have been serving our country since before we were a country," says Vice President and University Secretary Linda K. Lorimer. "From Nathan Hale to our graduates on the front lines in the Middle East, we continue with the tradition of honoring those who have served our country with the ceremony on Hewitt Quadrangle."
In keeping with tradition, the Veterans Day program will include the laying of wreath on the cenotaph of the Yale Alumni War Memorial, a structure built in 1927 to honor those who fought in World War I. (Armistice Day, the holiday honoring WWI soldiers, later became Veterans Day.)
Yale officials will also formally rededicate Hewitt Quadrangle, adjacent to the Bicentennial Buildings -- Woolsey, Woodbridge and Memorial Halls and Yale Commons -- that were built to celebrate the University's 200th anniversary in 1901.
As part of the recent renovation, the plaza was repaved with granite slabs taken from the same quarry as the original stones, and several new benches were constructed. In addition, the Ledyard Flagstaff was moved from its original position in the northeast end of the quadrangle closer to the cenotaph to create a commemorative space.
Rising 73 feet high from a granite base, the flagstaff is made from a single tree that, legend has it, was harvested for the Yale monument from a forest in the North Pacific used by the British to create the masts for their famed tall ships. The pole was stored in such a ship and sailed down to the South Pacific, around Cape Horn and Tierra del Fuego, up the North Atlantic coast to Yale. The flagstaff has been restored and repainted as part of the plaza renovation.
In conjunction with Yale's celebration of the 250th anniversary of the birthday of Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale, the University will pay tribute to another alumnus who was captured while serving his country.
Yale will present a Nathan Hale Award to John T. ("Jack") Downey in recognition of the values he displayed both during his captivity in China and during his many years of service on the judicial bench.
Downey joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after his graduation from Yale and was sent to the Far East. While on a flight over Northeast China on Nov. 29, 1952, Downey's aircraft was shot down, and he was held in prison until 1973.
On his return to the United States, Downey earned a J.D. degree from Harvard University (1976). After holding several posts within Connecticut state government -- including two terms as chair of the Public Utilities Control Authority -- he was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut in 1987. He was presiding judge of the New Haven Juvenile Matters Court from 1989 until 1990, when he was named chief administrative judge for Connecticut's Juvenile Matters Courts, a post he held until his retirement in 1997. Today, Downey continues to work as a judge trial referee. In honor of his service, the Connecticut Judicial Branch renamed the New Haven Juvenile Matters Courthouse as the John T. Downey Courthouse in 2002.
A New Haven resident, Downey has served on the boards of Quinnipiac College, Choate Rosemary Hall and the Foote School. He has also served on the governing boards of the Association of Yale Alumni and Mory's Association, and is a past president of the Yale Football "Y" Association and the Yale Wrestling Association.
T H I S
Yale will mark Veterans Day with
salute to alumnus, flag rededication
Rededication ceremony
The first floor of the Woolsey Hall rotunda contains tablets commemorating all Yale alumni who have died in wars since the American Revolution.
The flagpole for the entire University campus was erected in 1908 by classmates of Lieutenant Augustus Canfield Ledyard (1898 B.A.), a member of the 6th Infantry who was killed in action on Dec. 5, 1899, during the American-Philippine War.
Tribute to Downey
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