Artifacts, educational displays illuminate the life of one of the heroic Four Chaplains.
On Feb. 7, the Rev. George L. Fox Memorial Chapel in Gilman, Vt., will host a special Four Chaplains Day ceremony, featuring Army Chief of Chaplains (Maj. Gen.) Bill Green Jr. as guest speaker.
The chapel is the last church pastored by Fox, a Methodist minister and one of four Army chaplains who gave up their life jackets to save others when their transport was torpedoed in the North Atlantic on Feb. 3, 1943.
Following the ceremony, Fox’s family will join state and local officials in opening the George & Isadore Fox Museum, a collection of items related to the chaplain’s life and legacy. The event will be livestreamed at 11 a.m. Eastern at the chapel’s website, revfoxmemorialchapel.org, and on its Facebook page.
Last seen with arms linked on the slanted deck of USAT Dorchester, singing and praying as the ship sank, the “Immortal Chaplains” – Fox, Rabbi Alexander Goode, Father John Washington and the Rev. Clark Poling – became a symbol of courage, unity and service to others. In the decades since their sacrifice, the chaplains’ story has been commemorated with monuments, plaques, sculptures, paintings, stained glass, books and other works. Every year, on and around Feb. 3 – Four Chaplains Day – thousands of American Legion posts host or participate in ceremonies, services and programs.
For Lisa Murray Hirbour, Fox’s granddaughter and the chapel’s treasurer, the century-old sanctuary is an answer to prayer. As heir to what she calls the “Fox family treasures,” she is eager to show them to the public – including letters, photographs, a rare Four Chaplains stamp and a replica of the Chaplains’ Medal of Heroism, a one-time honor awarded posthumously and presented to the chaplains’ families in 1961.
“My grandmother's dream was to have a little chapel where people could meditate and reflect and see memorabilia from (her husband’s) life,” Hirbour says. Like Fox, “she was an itinerant minister who didn’t make much. She scrimped and saved her whole life and never could come up with the money to do it.”
Following the building’s purchase a couple of years ago, Hirbour and the chapel’s board of directors began discussing “how to bring in stuff that had been in storage, perfectly preserved for almost 83 years. And finally we’re bringing it to a chapel that is in his memory, just as my grandmother always wanted, and in a place that meant so much to him. He loved preaching in Gilman.”
In 2024, Fox received full military honors following installation of a memorial grave marker at Arlington National Cemetery, where Green spoke of the chaplain’s life and Army career. A native of Altoona, Pa., Fox joined the service at 17 “not with a romanticized notion of heroism, but rather with a simple burden to care for others above himself,” he said. “Ultimately, this was his selfless service to others that set him apart.”
As an orderly in World War I, Fox evacuated wounded troops on the Western Front, earning the Silver Star, the Purple Heart and the French Croix de Guerre. In November 1918, he suffered a spinal injury in a building collapse, and learned of the armistice after waking from a coma.
His experiences on the battlefield led Fox to spurn a career in finance to go into ministry. He and his wife, Isadore, served communities in Illinois, New Hampshire and Vermont while he studied theology, and in 1934 he was ordained.
In Gilman, Fox joined Walter G. Moore American Legion Post 41 (renamed Moore-Fox Post 41 after World War II), where he was known for his work in getting men admitted to the veterans hospital and others’ pensions paid and even increased. Soon he was appointed historian and chaplain for the American Legion Department of Vermont.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Fox volunteered for active duty, Hirbour says. “He said, ‘I have to go. Those boys do not know what they’re going to face. I have to be there for them spiritually.’ So at 42, he signed back up.” His son, Wyatt, enlisted in the Marine Corps the same day.
After the sinking of Dorchester and the loss of her husband, Isadore continued her own ministry. She was the first ordained minister to serve as the American Legion Auxiliary’s national chaplain (1970-1971), and also served as a unit president.
In 2023, a campaign to buy the Gilman chapel brought in contributions from the community, the Chapel of Four Chaplains in Philadelphia, the Fox family, American Legion posts and departments, American Legion Auxiliary units, Sons of The American Legion squadrons, other veterans groups and donors. A large donation from the late Mary Fox Murray secured the purchase.
Since then, the Rev. George L. Fox Memorial Chapel has undergone extensive renovations, thanks to an ongoing fundraising initiative and various grants. Work so far includes a new roof, structural restoration and stabilization, exterior and interior upgrades, and – to the delight of Gilman residents – repairs to the steeple chimes.
The vision is to provide meeting space for nonprofit groups, classes, clubs and more. “We’re trying to do all sorts of things for the community, because that’s what my grandparents did,” Hirbour says. “We want to continue their legacy of selfless service to others.”
- Honor & Remembrance