The South Scranton park named after Lt. Col. Frank J. Duffy now comes with an explanation of his background.
City and state officials gathered today to dedicate a historical marker that illuminates Duffy’s World War I story in far more detail than park visitors saw before.
The marker culminates a years-long project to reinvent the park as part of the Harrison Avenue Bridge replacement.
“There was nothing that really spoke (about) Duffy. What we wanted was something that would speak directly to the memory of Lt. Col. Duffy,” said Chris Casciano, an equal opportunity specialist/analyst in the city Office of Economic & Community Development.
Before the new bridge’s construction, Duffy Park stood on its southwestern end. The bridge replacement included a realignment that shifted the park to larger land on the southeast side. The city’s Spirit of the American Doughboy statue — World War I soldiers are referred to as doughboys — stood in the old park since its dedication in 1940.
The old statue was moved to the Steamtown National Historic Site. A new statue replaced it in the new Duffy Park, but both statues honored World War I soldiers. The marker aims to remember Duffy, the highest-ranking officer from Lackawanna County killed during The Great War, Casciano said.
Duffy, an engineering supervisor with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, and his motorcycle driver, Private 1st Class Frank Fiore, another Scranton resident, died Aug. 17, 1918, from enemy mortar fire near Chateau-Thierry, France.
“His memory was mostly anonymous for most of the 20th century and part of the 21st century,” Mayor Wayne Evans said. “I don’t think most Scrantonians really knew about Lt. Col. Frank Duffy.”
Officials credited PennDOT project manager Patrick McCabe for leading the charge for the marker.
Former City Councilman Joe Wechsler read a poem honoring Duffy. A man named George Bowen wrote the poem, published 101 years ago.
“Selfless sacrifice exultant, nothing to his flag denied, on the battlefield triumphant, Duffy for his country died,” Wechsler read.
Members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Rabiega-Gorgol Post No. 3451 of South Scranton, which dedicated the original statue, watched the marker dedication.
“It’s a lot better,” said former post commander Frank Warenda, who managed the project on the post’s behalf. “If it wasn’t for men like him in World War I and World War II, we’d be speaking German or Japanese.”
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