Writing

Columns in the Hyde Park Herald

Ulysses S. Grant Tree and Boulder The story of how Grant happened to plant a tree in Washington Park, the unreliability of memory, and the fleeting life of trees.

The Frederick Douglass Memorial The story of how Frederick Douglass became the Haitian Commissioner to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and how he spent the summer crusading.

Harold Washington Park The story of the land between 53rd to 51st, from the opening of the first Hyde Park Hotel, through its years as East End Park, the model yacht basin, and its renaming for Hyde Park’s very own mayor.

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Monument The story of how a visit to the University of Chicago changed the history of the Czech Republic and connected Hyde Park to the Bohemian community of Chicago.

Gold Star Memorials The story of personal memorials to sons lost in World War II—and the odd twists that history can take.

The Cheney-Goode Memorial Bench The story of two crusading women who fought for women’s rights and clean politics in the early years of the 20th Century.

The David Wallach Fountain The story of an immigrant to Chicago who, inspired by Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch became a philanthropist. Among his many donations, he tried to give a fountain for man and beast to Chicago.

Book in Progress: The Things They Left Unsaid: A Personal History of World War II

This is the table of contents of my book, which is almost done.

Chapter 1: The Beginning in the End

Chapter 2: Margaret Young’s and the Lesson of Resilience, 1917-1939

Chapter 3: Gordon Morse and the “Poets of the Twentieth Century,” 1916-1939

Chapter 4: Lost in the Haunted Wood, 1939-1941

Chapter 5: You’re in the Army Now, 1941

Chapter 6: Pearl Harbor, 1941-1942

Chapter 7: Officers and Engineers, 1942

Chapter 8: 325th Combat Engineers, Company C, 1942-1943

Chapter 9: Garrison Life and Army Wife, 1944

Chapter 10: From Carolina to Combat, 1944

Chapter 11: Operation Dogface, 1944

Chapter 12: Lemberg, 1944

Chapter 13: The Damn Engineers, 1944-1945

Chapter 14: Bitscherland, 1945

Chapter 15: Your Job in Germany, 1945

Chapter 16: Homeward Bound, 1945-1946

Chapter 17: Home as Found, 1946-1952

Chapter 18: Reunion

Chapter 19: The End in the Beginning