Roll of Honor
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Harold Arsene Bezazian
- School: Journalism
- Class Year: 1934
- War: World War II
- Date of Death: March 11, 1945
Harold Arsene Bezazian, School of Journalism, a lieutenant in the Sixth Infantry Division, was killed by enemy rifle fire while leading his platoon in an attack on Japanese positions east of Bayanbayanan, Luzon, on March 11, 1945. At the time of his death, he had already received a Purple Heart for an earlier action in Luzon and the Bronze Star for his valor in a battle in New Guinea. As he wrote to his father from the field at the time of the earlier action for which he won the Purple Heart, "I'm getting the standard Purple Heart award mighty cheap. I didn't need mroe than first-aid treatemnt and they dug the shrapnel out when I got off the hill. Very slight stuff--no pain and no excuse to go to the hospital, doggone it."
After graduating in 1934 from Columbia School of Journalism, having spent his junior and senior year at Columbia after having been part of the Oberlin Class of 1933, Harold studied in Europe on a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. Later he served as publicity manager for the Chicago Motor Club, as a reporter for the Chicago Times, and as manager of his father's 560-acre farm in Mississippi.
Harold volunteered for the army in March 1941, and was discharged as overage in November. After Pearl Harbor he enlisted again and served in Iceland and Great Britain. He was brought back to the United States for officer training in 1943, and was in the first wave of the landing on Luzon.
There is a Harold Bezazian branch of the Chicago Public Library built in 1957, as well as plaques in his memory, in the city of Long Beach, Mississippi, near his father's farm.
Is any of our information incorrect? You can submit corrections, additional photos, and/or tributes to uarchives@columbia.edu.