The School Buzz: Doherty HS reveals ‘Hall of Honor’ mural project
Doherty High School unveiled its new Hall of Honor last week on December 7, Pearl Harbor Day.
It's $14,000 donor-funded mural project that honors Petty Officer Daniel T. Griffin, a 1928 Colorado Springs High School graduate, who is widely considered the first casualty of the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It also honors PO Griffin's aircraft, a PBY Catalina, along with other Colorado Springs military heroes: LCDR Philip Long, an F6F pilot, LT COL Marion Rogers, one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, and LT COL Bob Masonheimer, a B-24 bomber pilot.
It all started with a phone call years ago to Captain Greg Thomas, a Senior Navy Science Instructor at Doherty High School. He learned a local library had new documents regarding Petty Officer Griffin. Learning of Griffin and those documents inspired him to get the ball rolling on the mural project, showing the significance that Colorado and the U.S. Navy played in saving the world during WWII.
The mural was built by Kim Polumka, a professional muralist whose work has been shown on other local projects and across the country. The Navy Junior ROTC at Doherty facilitated the ribbon cutting last week.
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