Faculty Gallery
The memorial has only one drawer: “I thought about the image of a ‘junk’ drawer, the kind that if you looked carefully at the junk, you would learn a lot about the drawer’s owner. I have drawers like that, do you?”
THERE WAS THIS GUY.
After serving in the United States Navy during WWII, he married and settled in Chicago. He was of Lithuanian descent and, as a postwar American civilian, he trained to become a construction worker in the bustling city. Early in his career he joined Local 73 of the Sheet Metal Workers Union and raised a family in one of Chicago’s west side Eastern European neighborhoods. He lived his life loving two countries:
celebrating his old-world heritage, while embracing modern American patriotism. Family was at his center. He had a daughter. They collected rocks, took camping trips, bowled, and learned the harmonica together. He tinkered—always had a project going—and filled his home with handmade furnishings. Weekly televised singalongs with Lawrence Welk and Mitch Miller were never missed. By all indications he was a good-looking, strong, Wi n t e r 20 1 4
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