“The documents brought history alive,” said Laura Hurley, a senior from
East Brunswick who was a student co-director of the exhibition. “You
see a window into what life was like, and how men and women our age
dealt with the war.”
For senior Jessica DiFranco of North Brunswick, also a student co-
director of the exhibition, the experience motivated her to pursue a
doctorate in history.
“I was just going to basically propel myself through, get my signatures
and graduate, but my experience at Kean has gone so much beyond
that, because of the history department,” she said.
As it revolutionizes the ways that archival materials can be incorporated
into curriculum, the History Department is hoping to inspire more
students. In collaboration with University Archivist Erin Alghandoor,
history students are now also studying the papers of Congresswoman
Florence Dwyer and Congressman Robert Winthrop Kean, both of which
are held in the University Archives.
“One of the department’s new tag lines is, ‘Make history @ Kean.’ With
these historical documents, we can do just that,” said Hyde.
The Nancy Thompson Scrapbook Collection is now available for public
viewing at the Kean University Archives.
World War II history
became family history for
Tara Murray, an English
major from Madison who
will graduate from Kean
University this May. Last
fall, in her World War II
History class with Associate
Professor Elizabeth Hyde,
Ph.D., she discovered that
her step-grandfather was
one of the soldiers who
wrote home to former librarian Nancy Thompson.
William D. Russo, an alumnus of Kean’s predecessor Newark State
Teachers College, was a navigator on B-17s, stationed in London in
WWII, when he corresponded with Thompson.
“Since my short stay here, I’ve seen action on several raids over
Germany. Yes, they do scare the hell out of a man, even me. That
may be the wrong thing to say, but it is the way we all feel on a
raid,” Russo wrote on October 14, 1944.
Murray and the Russo family never knew about the letters until 72
years later.
“I knew that he was in the war, but he didn’t talk about it,” she
said. “His letters made it more personal and made me feel more
connected to him.”
After the war, Russo became a teacher and served as the vice
principal at Bergen Street School in Newark for more than 20 years.
His step-granddaughter says knowing how it all turned out for him
made it easier to read his letters.
“I know that he made it out, but reading the letters was scary. You
see all that he went through,” she said.
The Russo family now has copies of the letters to add to the
memories of their patriarch. The family also gave a copy of Russo’s
self-published autobiography – which contains more details about
his time at Newark State and in the war – to the University. It is
available for review through the University Archives and Special
Collections.
Special Connection
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