To the editor:

Thanks to Mary Gordon and the other Liberty Memorial High School graduates for writing the letter I intended to write concerning the naming of the building now housing Central Junior High School. As they explained, this building was erected as a memorial to the Lawrence men who fought and died in World War I. It seems only right that this memorial should be preserved.

It’s been over 60 years since I sat in the auditorium of that building, but the words inscribed over the stage are engraved in my heart. I think I am at least almost right as I repeat them here:

“All that they had they gave in sure and single faith,

There is no knowledge can reach the grave to make them grudge their death,

Save only if they understood that after all was done,

We, the redeemed, denied their blood and mocked the gains it won.”

Please, committee, as you name the middle school to be housed in this building, remember the original purpose intended for it and call it “Liberty Memorial Middle School.”