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News & Photos
Memorial Day Lessons in "High Character"
As part of the annual Memorial Day service, Director of Religious Services John Grega told the story of Lee Temple '36. Temple was the only McDonogh alumnus to lose his life in the D-Day invasion, June 6, 1944. Grega's reflections follow:
"In the small town of Bedford deep in southwestern Virginia is found a special memorial. It is the National D-Day Monument, erected to commemorate all American and Allied servicemen who lost their lives on D-Day, June 6, 1944. D-Day marks a pivotal point in World War II, when the Allies began to reclaim Normandy and the rest of Europe captured by Germany in World War II.
"The monument, a huge squared off triumphal arch, seems like a modern version of Rome’s Arch of Titus but instead of sculptures of victories, it displays plaques with the names of those who died on June 6 the first day of the invasion. On plaque W-81 on the west wall is inscribed the name of Major Leon Brett Temple Jr., the only McDonogh cadet to die on D-Day.
"Along with his older brother Sam, Lee Temple entered McDonogh in 1926. In his Lower School years, Lee experienced many of the joys and troubles of childhood, including a weeklong bout with chicken pox in the fourth grade. He recovered only to contract mumps the very next week.
"A bright spot did occur a year later just before the start of sixth grade, when he sent this postcard from Ocean City to headmaster Doc Lamborn with the message: “Dear Major Lamborn, I have a police puppy. Would you mind if I brought him out to school he is 8 weeks old. Lee Temple.”
"As Lee prepared to move from eighth grade to ninth, Doc Lamborn wrote a note to Lee’s parents in which he described Lee as a “hard worker,” “a leader in his class,” “a faithful and dependable boy.” Throughout his Upper School years, Lee would exhibit these qualities as he posted a satisfactory academic record and participated in a broad range of school activities. In several he excelled.
"Acknowledged as a musician of considerable talent, Lee played in the school band for five years and as a senior played lead trumpet. He participated in McDonogh’s major theatrical production, the Orange and Black Varieties. He also helped anchor McDonogh’s varsity lacrosse team both as a junior and a senior. By the time he graduated in 1936, he had risen to the rank of full lieutenant in the cadet corps.
"Following his brother Sam, Lee Temple applied for admission to Rutgers University to pursue a degree in business. In his letter of recommendation, Upper School head Chester Des Rochers spoke of Lee as fully prepared to undertake college work; he further described Lee as a leader in extracurricular activities and concluded by seconding Doc Lamborn’s evaluation of him as a person of “high character,” “an admirable boy (ready to) do an honest piece of work.”
"'High character'…what does a person of high character do when he senses his country progressing into a time of danger with the clouds of war gathering? One option is typified by Lee’s decision to enlist in the Army Air Corps.
"In 1940, Lee shipped out for training in Lakeland, Florida. After four years of solid service, he had achieved the rank of major and led the 430th fighter squadron from the 474th air wing in the attack on Normandy on June 6. His plane was the fabled P-38, a twin engined fighter bomber, so respected by enemy fighter pilots that it earned the name of Gabelschwanz-teufel or “fork-tailed devil."
"On that first day of the Normandy invasion, Lee and his squadron were supporting ground troops near the town of St. Georges Bohon; during that mission, Major Lee Temple’s P-38 was shot down and he was killed in action.
"Lee Temple was a regular lad with some exceptional qualities, and the one that defined him most, in life and in death, was that of “high character.” How does anyone earn over a ten year career such a characterization from one’s school head?
"Perhaps it is in the usual way one achieves high character, through the lowly actions of day-to-day living, the day in and day out choices to do the right thing, both when it is easy and when it is difficult. Only a steady regimen of right choices leads to high character.
"Those choices may seem small, simple, lowly at times: a choice to assist a kindergartner with a complicated art project or the choice to help with Giving Wednesday or the choice to make sandwiches for the soup kitchen as carefully as possible; or the choice to help a classmate learn some arcane aspect of pre-calc and not simply pass on homework to be copied.
"Perhaps the choice is to give your all to learn a challenging concert piece or difficult vocal number or hard bit of dialogue for a play. Perhaps it is to play second string so forcefully that the first string has to earn its rank time and time again.
"High character is crafted in all those lowly day-to-day decisions, often small and sometimes grand, in much the same way that an oak tree learns to spread its limbs and reach heavenward, with daily touches of sunshine and single drops of rain and slender roots penetrating more and more into the soul of the earth.
"For every cadet whose name appears on the monument before us, from Lee Brett Temple to Marshall Turenne Warfield, from Carl Edward Ortman Jr. to Nelson Bolton, one can chronicle a life time of lowly daily choices forging high character, character given to dedication and sacrifice."
May the example of these cadets, of Lee Temple, help us make such decisions and in time discover that there are no lowly daily choices, but in fact only daily opportunities to forge high character.
As part of the annual Memorial Day service, Director of Religious Services John Grega told the story of Lee Temple '36. Temple was the only McDonogh alumnus to lose his life in the D-Day invasion, June 6, 1944. Grega's reflections follow:
"In the small town of Bedford deep in southwestern Virginia is found a special memorial. It is the National D-Day Monument, erected to commemorate all American and Allied servicemen who lost their lives on D-Day, June 6, 1944. D-Day marks a pivotal point in World War II, when the Allies began to reclaim Normandy and the rest of Europe captured by Germany in World War II.
"The monument, a huge squared off triumphal arch, seems like a modern version of Rome’s Arch of Titus but instead of sculptures of victories, it displays plaques with the names of those who died on June 6 the first day of the invasion. On plaque W-81 on the west wall is inscribed the name of Major Leon Brett Temple Jr., the only McDonogh cadet to die on D-Day.
"Along with his older brother Sam, Lee Temple entered McDonogh in 1926. In his Lower School years, Lee experienced many of the joys and troubles of childhood, including a weeklong bout with chicken pox in the fourth grade. He recovered only to contract mumps the very next week.
"A bright spot did occur a year later just before the start of sixth grade, when he sent this postcard from Ocean City to headmaster Doc Lamborn with the message: “Dear Major Lamborn, I have a police puppy. Would you mind if I brought him out to school he is 8 weeks old. Lee Temple.”
"As Lee prepared to move from eighth grade to ninth, Doc Lamborn wrote a note to Lee’s parents in which he described Lee as a “hard worker,” “a leader in his class,” “a faithful and dependable boy.” Throughout his Upper School years, Lee would exhibit these qualities as he posted a satisfactory academic record and participated in a broad range of school activities. In several he excelled.
"Acknowledged as a musician of considerable talent, Lee played in the school band for five years and as a senior played lead trumpet. He participated in McDonogh’s major theatrical production, the Orange and Black Varieties. He also helped anchor McDonogh’s varsity lacrosse team both as a junior and a senior. By the time he graduated in 1936, he had risen to the rank of full lieutenant in the cadet corps.
"Following his brother Sam, Lee Temple applied for admission to Rutgers University to pursue a degree in business. In his letter of recommendation, Upper School head Chester Des Rochers spoke of Lee as fully prepared to undertake college work; he further described Lee as a leader in extracurricular activities and concluded by seconding Doc Lamborn’s evaluation of him as a person of “high character,” “an admirable boy (ready to) do an honest piece of work.”
"'High character'…what does a person of high character do when he senses his country progressing into a time of danger with the clouds of war gathering? One option is typified by Lee’s decision to enlist in the Army Air Corps.
"In 1940, Lee shipped out for training in Lakeland, Florida. After four years of solid service, he had achieved the rank of major and led the 430th fighter squadron from the 474th air wing in the attack on Normandy on June 6. His plane was the fabled P-38, a twin engined fighter bomber, so respected by enemy fighter pilots that it earned the name of Gabelschwanz-teufel or “fork-tailed devil."
"On that first day of the Normandy invasion, Lee and his squadron were supporting ground troops near the town of St. Georges Bohon; during that mission, Major Lee Temple’s P-38 was shot down and he was killed in action.
"Lee Temple was a regular lad with some exceptional qualities, and the one that defined him most, in life and in death, was that of “high character.” How does anyone earn over a ten year career such a characterization from one’s school head?
"Perhaps it is in the usual way one achieves high character, through the lowly actions of day-to-day living, the day in and day out choices to do the right thing, both when it is easy and when it is difficult. Only a steady regimen of right choices leads to high character.
"Those choices may seem small, simple, lowly at times: a choice to assist a kindergartner with a complicated art project or the choice to help with Giving Wednesday or the choice to make sandwiches for the soup kitchen as carefully as possible; or the choice to help a classmate learn some arcane aspect of pre-calc and not simply pass on homework to be copied.
"Perhaps the choice is to give your all to learn a challenging concert piece or difficult vocal number or hard bit of dialogue for a play. Perhaps it is to play second string so forcefully that the first string has to earn its rank time and time again.
"High character is crafted in all those lowly day-to-day decisions, often small and sometimes grand, in much the same way that an oak tree learns to spread its limbs and reach heavenward, with daily touches of sunshine and single drops of rain and slender roots penetrating more and more into the soul of the earth.
"For every cadet whose name appears on the monument before us, from Lee Brett Temple to Marshall Turenne Warfield, from Carl Edward Ortman Jr. to Nelson Bolton, one can chronicle a life time of lowly daily choices forging high character, character given to dedication and sacrifice."
May the example of these cadets, of Lee Temple, help us make such decisions and in time discover that there are no lowly daily choices, but in fact only daily opportunities to forge high character.