whisperingpines
the whispering
pines
A Memorial Day Remembrance
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t the President’s Awards Luncheon in May, President Barry Mills presented Danica Loucks ’13 with the Andrew Allison Haldane Cup for her remarkable record of service as a mentor, campus leader, and volunteer during her undergraduate years. For more than 65 years the Haldane Cup has been awarded to men and women who have shown “outstanding qualities of leadership and character.” The large silver cup honors the memory and spirit of Andrew Haldane of the Class of 1941, who was killed in the Battle of Peleliu in the Pacific during World War II, and was established by eight of his fellow alumni – all officers who served with him in the Pacific theater of operations. The story of Captain Haldane and of the men who fought with him has been told in Home Box Office’s 2010 miniseries The Pacific. Inspired by Haldane’s story, President of HBO Miniseries Kary Antholis ’84 and his wife, Karen, established the Andrew A. Haldane Scholarship Fund at the College in 2011. Andy’s parents came from Scotland in 1912. His father was a textile executive in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where Andy was born in 1917. At Bowdoin he was an All-State running back on three State Championship football teams (captain in his senior year), a catcher on the baseball team, president of the Student Council, and the recipient of the Wooden Spoon as the most popular member of his class. By his own admission, Andy was not a brilliant student, but he worked hard, was “comfortable in his own skin,” and earned the respect of students and faculty alike. After his graduation he was called up for active duty. He shipped out with the 5th Marine Regiment of the First Marine Division, which fought its way across the Pacific from Guadalcanal to Okinawa. Back in Brunswick, Dean of the College Paul Nixon had regular correspondence with hundreds of alumni service men. The letters sent between Haldane and Nixon from 1942 to 1944 reveal the Dean’s ability to weave news accounts and bits of information gleaned from letters that had passed under the eyes of military censors into the fabric of the Bowdoin community. He was keeping an eye out for many alumni, but especially for Andy. Haldane was wounded on several occasions, perhaps
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because he led his men from the front. He was awarded a Silver Star for gallantry and promoted to captain following the fighting at Cape Gloucester in New Guinea. His fellow alumni in the Marines wrote to Nixon that Andy would lose 20 to 30 pounds during each offensive because he would give his food, his water, and his blankets to the men under his command. His calm demeanor and his courage under fire were an inspiration to the 235 men of Company K. Private Eugene Sledge wrote in his book, With the Old Breed, that Haldane was viewed by his men as a father figure – someone who was concerned for their welfare, above all else. In October of 1942 Haldane wrote to Bowdoin football coach Adam Walsh: “Whenever I am in doubt as to what to do I try to think back and imagine what you would do and somehow I find myself solving a problem which at the outset seemed to leave me bewildered.” Haldane’s letters in the summer of 1944 express his anticipation of the next alumni magazine (“We all enjoy reading about Bowdoin, even the boys who never heard of the school before.”). In the middle of September the Marines began a ground assault on entrenched Japanese forces on the island of Pelelieu; it would become the bloodiest battle of the war. On October 12, only a few days before he would have been sent home, Andy was killed by a sniper’s bullet as he raised his head above a rock to assess enemy positions on Hill 140. He never received the letter that Dean Nixon wrote a few days later, which ended with “These fingers of mine are so tightly crossed that they hurt.” The Memorial Day weekend afforded us an opportunity to rejoice at Commencement in the accomplishments of the members of the Class of 2013, and also to reflect on the sacrifices made by Andy Haldane and so many others to ensure a brighter future for generations to come. With best wishes,
John R. Cross ’76 Secretary of Development and College Relations
BOWDOIN SUMMER 2013
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7/11/13 2:51 PM