October 17, 2017
Author and San Diego Mesa College Professor Lisa Shapiro will Speak at SDSU Annual
War Memorial Ceremony
By Office of Communications
On Friday, October 20, San Diego State University (SDSU) will hold their annual War
Memorial Ceremony to honor veterans who died while serving in World War II, Korea
and Vietnam. This will be the 21 annual wreath-laying ceremony, and has been expanded
to include and honor service members involved in events since World War II.
Author and Mesa College Professor Lisa Shapiro will be the keynote speaker at this
year’s ceremony which will take place at the campus War Memorial on Aztec Green at
9:00 a.m. Shapiro, being the author of upcoming book, “No Forgotten Fronts, From Classrooms
to Combat,” has had the opportunity to research and read the late San Diego State
professor Dr. Lauren Post’s collection of letters known as the World War II Servicemen’s
Correspondence Collection 1941-1945. This has given Shapiro an up close and personal
look into the lives of the service officials and their families during the time of
the war and how Dr. Lauren Post’s letter project, the Aztec News Letter, connected
thousands through writing.
When asked about the letters she researched, Shapiro claimed, “The letters written
to one beloved professor describe an American perspective of war that shines with
idealism, determination, raw grief, and the power of friendship.” She added, “These
intimate, first-person accounts capture honest, in-the-moment reactions to war that
resound with heartache and gratitude.”
Shapiro’s book will be published April, 2018 by Naval Institute Press and will include
more insight to the WWII letter collection mentioned.
Tags: Lisa Shapiro, Honoring Veterans, #SDMesaCollege, Mesa Professors, WWII
