Even in war time, engineers will find a way to celebrate St. Pat’s. For an article that appeared in a 1991 issue of our alumni magazine, staff writers interviewed Gene Boyt about his experiences meeting up with two other MSM grads as prisoners in the Philippines during World War II.
MSM grad John McAnerney (for whom the Quadrangle’s McAnerney Hall was named) was killed during the defense of Corregidor, but Boyt and Robert Silhavy survived the Bataan Death March and spent the rest of the war in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.
It was there that the pair conspired and improvised to celebrate their version of the Best Ever, even under the worst conditions.
Wow. That’s an awesome story. Shame the men have passed on, what truly remarkable ingenuity under harsh conditions.