"The War President"

I

n 1949, eleven years after becoming a member of the AHEPA, Dad was elected District Governor of Empire State District No. 6, the highest statewide office in the fraternity. He was thirty-seven.

Leon Marketos (1949)

This is the medal (front and back) that he was awarded at the end of his tenure.

Late that year, AHEPA Supreme President, John G. Thevos, appointed Dad chairman of a committee to arrange for the re-location of a large bronze bust of FDR, titled “The War President,” located on the grounds of the FDR Library at Hyde Park, New York.  The AHEPA had presented the bust to President Roosevelt six years earlier in March 1943, but the statue had been placed in an out-of-the-way location, and it was decided to move it to a more prominent spot on the Library grounds.  As other re-location committee members, Dad appointed past District Governor George H. Miller (Painted Post, N.Y.; later to become my godfather), past District Governor George Dimas (New York City), George Kastrinos (Astoria), Harry Morris (Utica), and Constantine Bliziotis (a member of the Poughkeepsie, N.Y., AHEPA Chapter No. 158).

“The War President” was both an expression of Greek American patriotism during wartime and also evidence of the fraternity’s affection for a distinguished fellow member.  FDR had joined the AHEPA in 1931 when he was Governor of New York and remained a dues-paying member of Delta Chapter No. 25 in New York City until his death in 1945.

The sculpture came about through the efforts of George C. Vournas (1897-1995), a nationally prominent Greek American and the AHEPA’s Supreme President during the war years.  In 1942, Vournas became aware that Walter Russell (1871-1963), an eminent New York artist, was preparing a bust of FDR entitled “The War President.”  Though the sculpture had been approved by the President and his family, it was stipulated that it could not be presented by any person or group against whom there might be the slightest suspicion of “having an axe to grind."  Negotiations were undertaken with the White House, and the AHEPA prevailed over other contestants for the honor of presenting the bust to the nation. 

A fund of $25,000 for the project was privately raised from 233 donors in the AHEPA leadership.  Among the contributors were my godfather, George Miller ($100), and our cousin Dean Alfange ($100).   The sculptor received $12,000; additional funds were used to make up 328 miniature replicas in cast marble for presentation to various dignitaries.  The original idea was to cast the bust in bronze, but this was deemed inappropriate during wartime, when FDR himself had cleared his desk of all metal for the war effort.  So the original bust was made in stone, weighing over half a ton.

At an Oval Office ceremony on March 10, 1943, the AHEPA formally presented the bust “through you [FDR], to our fellow Americans.” Vournas explained that the original would be erected on a specially designed pedestal on the Library grounds at Hyde Park at a ceremony later in the summer, but that did not happen.

According to William D. Hassett, FDR’s correspondence secretary (and later, President Truman’s as well), FDR considered the bust to be an “atrocity.”  He said so on April 9, 1943, having that day seen (evidently for the first time) the actual full-size marble sculpture at Hyde Park rather than the small replicas the AHEPA delegation had presented a month earlier in the Oval Office.  He did not like the hooked nose Russell had given him.  Hassett considered Russell to have “unloaded” the sculpture on the FDR Library, the staff of which considered the sculpture to look more like Spencer Tracy, the actor.  In Hassett’s view: “[i]f Russell had talent in proportion to his nerve, he would be a rival of Michelangelo.  This is destined for storage, although the Order of Ahepa, which bought it from Russell, is in cahoots with him to achieve mutual fame by placing the bust in the outside court of the Library.  It would frighten patrons away.  The war will furnish the out for all this.”  [William D. Hassett, Off the Record with FDR, 1942-1945 (Rutgers Univ. Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey 1958), pp. 164-165.]

Sometime between the Oval Office ceremony and June 1943 it was decided “The War President” would be unveiled after the war when a bronze version could be cast.  President Roosevelt never saw it, however.  He had died five months before Harris Booras (then AHEPA Supreme President) and two other representatives of the fraternity met with President Truman in Washington on September 19, 1945, to present the bronze version.  On October 29, Dad attended a Hyde Park dedication ceremony for the bronze bust.

Five years later on January 11, 1950, Dad initiated re-location activities by conferring for an hour and a half with the Director of the FDR Library, Herman Kahn.  The Director was enthusiastic about moving the statue to a place where it would be seen by more visitors, saying it had already become one of the most photographed subjects at Hyde Park.  At the time, the statue was located in a sunken garden, and the plan was to move it to a location immediately south of the Library a few steps from the walkway around the south side used by practically every visitor to the site.  A new, more formal pedestal of granite would be required to replace the then-existing one of fieldstone.  The sculptor, Walter Russell, could not be found to fashion a new pedestal.  Mr. Kahn therefore recommended Charles J. Cooke, a distinguished Poughkeepsie architect, to design the new pedestal.

In June 1950, the architect submitted rough sketches of the newly designed pedestal (brown granite) and the bluestone terrace on which it was to be placed.  He estimated the project would cost $2,000, including some simple landscaping.  The design was approved by the AHEPA at its Cleveland convention in August 1950, and $2,000 was appropriated.  At the convention, Dad did not support Thevos for re-election, and he wondered in September 1950 whether he would still remain on the re-location committee.  Thevos reassured Dad in October that he was still chairman of the committee.

 

The architect submitted construction drawings to the Library Director at the end of November, in which it was decided to eliminate the bluestone terrace and substitute bluestone paving treads with grass between them leading from the walkway to the pedestal.  The plans were approved by the Library and the General Services Administration (which administered the grounds).  A slight change was made, allowing the bluestone treads to proceed completely around the statue, and correspondence was exchanged with the architect about the wording that would be incised on the front of the pedestal and the bronze plaques that would be affixed to the rear.

Plan and elevation drawings were available by December 1950.  In February 1951, the architect submitted specifications for the pedestal and related work.  The specifications described the pedestal as being of polished Sandvik granite as produced by the H.E. Fletcher Co. of New York City.  Three bids were received from contractors on March 1 ranging from $2,085 to $2,535, each including an allowance of $1,400 for the cost of the granite pedestal.  The contract was awarded to the low bidder, Tony Leo & Son, of Poughkeepsie.  The architect’s fee was $282.

In March 1951, the AHEPA Supreme Lodge authorized the necessary expenditure above $2,000 to pay for the work.  The contract for the work was signed in May.  Commencement of the work was delayed by weeks, however, when it was discovered that the granite block that was to be fashioned into the pedestal was cracked and another had to be ordered.

 AHEPA President Thevos’s March 29 letter authorizing Dad to proceed asked him to “arrange with the authorities at Hyde Park for fitting ceremonies to be held upon the completion of the work.”  Judging by Dad’s notes, someone felt a need to “make amends for [the] previous dedication.”  This must have been the October 29, 1945, Hyde Park ceremony.  His notes do not say why amends were necessary.

The committee met on May 20, 1951, at the Bardavon Restaurant in Poughkeepsie to formulate plans for the ceremonies.  The Library Director, the GSA Custodian (Palmer), and the architect were also consulted.  Ambitious plans were formulated for a re-dedication ceremony to be held on July 22, 1951, “in a manner so as not to cause the same embarrassment to the Poughkeepsie Chapter as did the first dedication.”  The ceremony at the Library would be preceded by a one-hour afternoon reception at the Nelson House (the per-person cost was projected to be $2.50).  Engraved invitations to the ceremony and reception, signed by Thevos as Supreme President and Dad as chairman of the re-location committee, would be issued to various dignitaries and their wives.  Prior to the ceremony, the District Lodge would privately lay a wreath at FDR’s grave.  Dad was to conduct the ceremony.  George Vournas would be the sole speaker, the Library Director advising that the only limitation on speeches was that they were not to be of a political nature.  A band would play music before and after the ceremony.

The invitees were to include all past District Governors of Empire District No. 6, His Grace Archbishop Michael, His Excellency Ambassador Polites, Past Supreme President George Vournas, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., and all members of the AHEPA Supreme Lodge.   Consideration was also given to inviting Lincoln McVeagh, Henry Goody, former ambassador Henry Morgenthau, the local Member of Congress, the mayors of Poughkeepsie and Hyde Park, a professor of Greek from nearby Vassar College or the state university, the county sheriff, local judges and other local dignitaries, and the rector of St. James Church at Hyde Park.

Dad’s June 1, 1951, letter to Vournas invited him to be the main speaker.  According to the letter, Vournas had been “the prime force in the creation of the bust,” but (for unexplained reasons) he had not been invited to the original dedication ceremony in 1945.  Vournas replied on June 4 that he was inclined to accept the invitation, but he feared the committee’s decision might have adverse repercussions:

Having . . . somewhat more varied experience in Ahepa management and affairs, I fear that my answer may create problems for your committee before the Supreme Lodge.  May I inquire whether your committee has cleared the extent and purview of its authority with the Supreme President?  My fears may be totally unjustified, but it may be that the Supreme President or the Supreme Lodge may step in at some future date and challenge the authority of the committee in making final rededication plans.  There are precedents – I regret to say – for such action.

Responding on June 7, Dad assured Vournas that, while he had not cleared the matter with the entire Supreme Lodge, the committee had discussed the subject with Thevos, “who, in fact himself suggested that you should be the main speaker, as early as the Cleveland Convention.”

The committee’s ambitious plans for July 22 never materialized.  On June 8, 1951, Dad received Thevos’s June 5 letter to the re-location committee and AHEPA officers nationwide.  The letter commended Dad and the committee for their fine work, but requested that the ambitious plans being formulated for a re-dedication be cancelled.

Acknowledging that the plans underway resulted from his suggestion that such ceremonies be arranged, Thevos nevertheless urged that, with the “mistake” of the statue’s location now being corrected, the AHEPA’s purpose in erecting a memorial for the ages that would reflect positively on FDR and on the AHEPA had now been accomplished.  Re-dedicating the statue, following the 1945 formal dedication, would be “gilding the lily.”  He also cited financial concerns, stating that ambitious ceremonies and their attendant additional expense of $400 to $500 “could not be justified within the letter or the spirit of the appropriation made by the last National Convention.”  He therefore urged that, following completion of the re-location work, the proceedings be limited to a visit to Hyde Park by the committee and the officers of the Poughkeepsie chapter to meet with the Library Director, the GSA Custodian, and the architect.  Photos of the meeting and “a complete documentation of the history and events of the re-location” would be published in “The Ahepan” magazine and in the Supreme Lodge’s 1951 Year Book.  Thevos would not be able to attend due to the pressure of the forthcoming national AHEPA convention in Minneapolis.

Thevos’s directive caught the committee completely by surprise.  At a hastily arranged meeting in New York on June 17, it was decided “the committee had no alternative but to abide by the direction of our Supreme President and to cancel all rededication plans.”  Dad’s disappointment was palpable when he informed committee member Harry Morris, who could not attend the June 17 meeting, that “we will have a meeting at Poughkeepsie as scheduled on July 22 to take photographs and to express our thanks to the director of the Hyde Park Library and other officials.”

Vournas’s fears that Thevos or the Supreme Lodge might step in to challenge the committee’s plans seem to have been well founded.  Dad’s June 19 letter to Thevos implies that the selection of Vournas as the main speaker had something to do with the decision to cancel a formal re-dedication ceremony:

I was shocked, amazed, and mystified last Sunday when I met with Brothers Dimas, Kastrinos, and Miller, and was informed that you have taken the position that it was my idea to have Brother Vournas as the main speaker at the rededication ceremonies originally scheduled at Hyde Park.

For my information, I would like to hear from you as to whether these gentlemen misunderstood you.  I do not believe you will have forgotten that it was you who originally suggested that Brother Vournas should be the main speaker and that I should be Master of Ceremonies at the exercises.

Having discussed this with you on several occasions, I informed our committee that it was your suggestion to invite Brother Vournas, and on June 1st. forward[ed] our invitation to him.

Thevos never replied.  George Miller, inquiring whether Dad was going to attend the AHEPA national convention in Minneapolis later in the summer, said:  “If you are going, don’t be bashful about criticizing the administration on the Hyde Park doings.”

Dad revered Vournas.   Thevos was not spoken of the same way.  Dad would surely have been inclined to rectify the injustice of Vournas’s exclusion from the 1945 dedication by asking him to be the main speaker at the re-dedication in 1951.  But he would not have violated AHEPA protocol to do so.  So I am certain he would have raised with Thevos in advance the question of who should be the main speaker, and that the selection of Vournas was Thevos’s idea, just as Dad claimed.  I suspect that Thevos or someone on the Supreme Lodge had second thoughts about Vournas or had some kind of antipathy toward him and decided to renege at the last moment, just as Vournas had predicted.  The additional expense of $400-$500 cited in Thevos’s June 5 letter was surely just a pretext.

The re-location was commemorated at a simple ceremony conducted at the FDR Library at 3:00 p.m, on Sunday, July 22, 1951. Mrs. Roosevelt attended.

Photos were taken.

July 22, 1951

Dad’s report was duly made to the Minneapolis convention and published in “The Ahepan.”  And to this day, “The War President” stands on its brown granite pedestal in the garden of the FDR Library at Hyde Park, New York.