2 Photos
Bill Donohue (right) and Hayden Glover (right) at the Westhampton Beach Marina, where the Service Before Self monument will be located. COURTESY BILL DONOHUE
Artists rendering of what the memorial will look like. COURTESY BILL DONOHUE
A World War II memorial is set to be constructed at the Westhampton Beach Village Marina to honor area service members who fought in the war nearly a century ago.
The “Service Before Self” monument will feature the engraved names of 30 World War II veterans from the Town of Southampton. The monument will be located at the Westhampton Village Marina’s Military Appreciation Park, at the corner of Library Avenue and Stevens Lane.
The proposal for the monument came from Bill Donohue, a financial advisor and Westhampton Beach resident. Donohue is an avid history buff who has previously undertaken history-related projects like returning Japanese Hinomaru (good luck) flags to the Ministry of Japan and returning Dress Blue uniforms to Marine veterans who never received them.
The monument will be four feet long, 18 inches deep and four and a half feet high, with a sloped surface at the top which will feature the engraved names.
The Westhampton Beach Village Board unanimously approved the construction of the memorial last Thursday.
Donohue got the idea for the memorial after talking to and interviewing World War II veterans. He said that what stuck out to him most is how the experience of living through the Great Depression and the war shaped their mental toughness.
“In interviewing them, I felt that because they grew up during the depression and then defended our country during World War II, that everything that happened to them after the fact, they were much more equipped to handle stress and adversity,” he said. “And they seemed much more mentally healthy and positive.”
Through the process of finding the names of the veterans for the monument, Donohue said that he became “very engaged” with the families of the veterans, who reached out to him to get their family members’ names etched on the monument and offer their support.
Donohue then reached out to village officials about installing it since the marina is village property. Village Mayor Ralph Urban said that Donohue and the board had to compromise on the scope of the monument, though he noted that it wasn’t a contentious process.
“We asked him to incorporate his memorial in the park and downscale it a little bit,” said Urban. “He was more than willing to do that and was very cooperative.”
Urban expressed his support for the memorial, saying that “I think recognition of veterans is important and their sacrifice throughout our history is very important.”
Urban said at last week’s meeting that additional memorials incorporating the names of veterans from other wars could potentially be added at the same location.
Donohue has been assisted in the project by Hayden Glover, a recent graduate of Westhampton Beach High School who will be majoring in history at Quinnipiac University this fall. Like Donohue, Glover is a history buff himself, explaining how history has been a part of his life.
“History has always been a large part of my life,” he said. “Ever since I was a little kid, my family has been helping out with VFW dinners, veterans events, things like that.”
Glover said that his grandfather served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, which has also influenced his interest in history. He expressed the importance of having the monument as a way to preserve history and keep the memory of World War II veterans alive.
“In order to move forward, we have to know where it is that we came from,” he said. “It is of the utmost importance to preserve history so that it is not forgotten.”
The monument will be dedicated on August 15, 2025, which is the 80th anniversary of when Japan accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration to end the war. The dedication ceremony will feature a speech by Glover about why the local community should remember veterans, as well as a reading of Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in The Arena” speech by Dominic Lodato, a World War II veteran who lives in East Quogue.
Additionally, Donohue will be filming the ceremony and uploading it to his website unspokennowtold.com, a nonmonetized website where he posts short documentary films that he has made.
