while the shining stars of Fall River such as Dr. Irving Fradkin, the founder of Dollars for Scholars get this:
In 1958, Dr. Irving Fradkin founded the initial "Dollars for Scholars" chapter by challenging everyone in his community, Fall River, to give at least one dollar toward sending its youth to college. 50 years later Dr. Fradkin's "Scholarship America" has provided scholarships for over 1.5 million students and he still lives right here in Fall River.
I think that Mayor Correia may have gotten the commemorations backwards. Certainly Fradkin deserves something more honorable than a 1 foot by 1 foot sign hanging from a metal post.....
I recently went to visit the Paul K. McGovern square that Mayor Correia dedicated a few weeks ago. It is a lovely tribute to an obviously beloved restaurateur of Fall River but I couldn't help feeling that it belongs in a cemetery rather than a city square.
Hiding behind the giant McGovern memorial, was a tiny plaque that I discovered. The plaque indicated that the square, now McGovern Square, had previously been dedicated to Corporal David L. Miller, a son of Fall River. It reads "In Memory of David L. Miller, Corporal in the United States Army, a son of Fall River. Survivor of the Bataan Death March of 1942, he died in a Japanese prison camp in 1943. Lest anyone forget, may this garden serve as humble reminder of the sacrifice of all who gave their lives for liberty."
The plaque in the square that was once a tribute to a Fall River soldier who died in the line of duty now lies in the shadow of an enormous slab of granite memorializing a restaurateur.
If we are honoring notable Fall Riverites, where is the tribute to Fall River's resident Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. David Greer? In 1985, a group that Dr. Greer and five other American physicians established in collaboration with six Soviet Union physicians, The Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, won the Nobel Peace Prize.
