By Cathi Taylor, ALA National Headquarters Archivist 
 
 
In 1998, the United States Congress designated Feb. 3 as Four Chaplains Day in commemoration of an extraordinary act of selflessness. For on that day in 1943, the USAT Dorchester was struck by a German U-boat torpedo in the North Atlantic, resulting in the death of 672 men. Only 230 survived. Among those who died were four Army chaplains who gave their lives so that others might live.
 
I won’t repeat the full story here as there are numerous websites you can consult for that, such as The Army Historical Foundation and the Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation, in case you aren’t familiar with this event in American history. 
 
​However, the internet search results you receive will not include the sincerest rendering, as it can only be found in the February 1971 edition of the American Legion Auxiliary National News magazine. The author, Rev. Isadore Gertrude Fox, was the first ordained minister to hold the office of ALA national chaplain (1970-1971). I suppose you would expect her to speak so eloquently about faith, hope, love, and the good that comes from sacrifice. 
 
But what I find so astonishing is not so much what she said in this piece, but what she didn’t say. You won’t find a request for sympathy or pity, nor an expression of anger that the chaplains thought more of the men on that ship than their families. Instead, you will find that Rev. Fox was filled with an inner peace in the men’s actions because she knew it was for the greater good. No other Auxiliary member could understand nor explain their faith and devotion better than she. That’s because 1^st Lt. George Lansing Fox — one of those chaplains — was her husband and father of their two children. 
 
This wasn’t the first time Rev. Fox imparted on this topic, for she was called upon to speak on numerous occasions. Journalist A. Ritchie Low heard her in September 1945 at a church in Vermont. In his article printed in New England newspapers, Low described Rev. Fox’s devout faith as contagious, something he believed to be in short supply.
 
“We need too her cheerful outlook, her firm conviction that while today we may see through a glass darkly, the time will come when all will be revealed, and all shall be made plain,” Low wrote. “But until such times, until the day break and the shadows flee away, we should aim to do our bit and to let our lights shine.”
 
Today, I present to you the words of former ALA National Chaplain Rev. Isadore Gertrude Fox on the true meaning of selflessness and the good that flourishes forth from it written for this historic event’s 28^thanniversary. May her words be an inspiration to us all.