The bridge over Little Pine Creek on Route 44 in Waterville, Pa., will be renamed in honor of a Susquehanna hero on Saturday, June 23rd.
|
| Michael J. Wolf '69 displays a photo of his uncle Michael F. Wolf '41 for whom the bridge over Little Pine Creek in Waterville, Pa., will be renamed.
|
The first SU casualty of World War II, Army Air Corps 2nd Lt. Michael F. Wolf '41 was wounded in the Battle of Bataan in the Philippines in April 1942. He was captured a month later and miraculously survived the infamous, 65-mile "Bataan Death March," only to lose his life in December 1944 when American forces mistakenly bombed a Japanese ship in Subic Bay. The Japanese had failed to display markings identifying the ship as carrying prisoners of war.
|
| 2nd Lt. Michael F. Wolf '41
|
The youngest of eight children and just six years old when his father died, Wolf was the only one of four brothers to attend school past the fifth grade, says nephew and namesake Michael J. Wolf '69, a retired accountant who is currently tax collector in Riverside, Pa.
Carrie Campbell, the wife of a Sunbury physician who had a summer home in Waterville, recognized his uncle's potential and arranged transportation so he was able to graduate from Jersey Shore High School in 1937. She later enrolled him in Susquehanna and provided an apartment in Sunbury and an old car to drive to classes. A member of the German Club, The Lanthorn staff, and ROTC, he graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in business administration.
The June 23 bridge-naming ceremony will recognize Wolf's extraordinary accomplishments at home and abroad, says his nephew, who decries the current stereotypically portrayal of men as "bumbling buffoons" in TV commercials and sitcoms. "They do a dreadful disservice to the tens of thousands of men and boys who made the ultimate sacrifice in foreign wars to defend our freedom," says Wolf. "My uncle is a real American hero and truly deserves the honor."
