Donald Ferguson, December 13, 1968; Updated

UPDATED comments, posted 4/8/24

Remembering Donald P. Ferguson, ’69

Mark Alden Branch’s “Old Yale” article, “The Stories Behind the Names,”, in Yale Alumni Magazine, November/December, 2023, focuses on five of the 35 Yale alumni killed in the Vietnam War. One of them, Donald Ferguson, ’69, is also part of another group of five men killed in that war, memorialized by a plaque, at the base of a flagpole flying the American flag, placed in 2018 in the Honor Hill neighborhood in the Mt. Carmel section of Hamden, CT, where those men had lived. In Honor Hill there are five streets named after those men.

As I recall, Donald Ferguson, a U.S. Army Corporal, was wounded in action in Vietnam, but recovered and returned to the field; and he was killed on January 13, 1968, while riding atop an armored personnel carrier that hit a land mine.

In freshman year, 1965-66, I saw, as I recall, a bulletin board notice placed by Don Ferguson, looking for a Spanish tutor. I contacted Don and tutored him in Spanish for a few months. Don was a pleasant, serious, smart person. I was very saddened when I learned that he was killed in Vietnam.

Mr. Branch’s article notes that Maya Lin, ’81, 86 MArch, saw, in her freshman year, a stonecutter at Memorial Hall, carving, on a white marble wall, the names of the 35 Yale alumni killed in Vietnam. Ms. Lin said that seeing that made “a lasting impression” on her about “the power of a name”. Her winning design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., consists of the names of the more than 58,000 U.S. service people killed in the Vietnam War, incised on two, intersecting, triangular walls of black granite, chronologically according to when they died. In 1983, Ronald Gonzalez, ’68, ’71 MArch, invited me to join him for lunch in Washington, and then visit the recently completely Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I looked through a booklet at the memorial that alphabetically listed the names on the wall, and told their locations. I found Donald Ferguson’s name, was able to reach up to it, and I ran my fingers over his first and last names.

Mr. Branch’s article tells that Donald Ferguson supported the Vietnam War, while increasingly at that time, many others, at Yale and elsewhere, did not.
Donald Ferguson was a very brave American patriot. He and many others died in the Vietnam War, with the view that the war was necessary to prevent the people of South Vietnam and other nations from living under authoritarian Communism. Now the U.S. has diplomatic relations with Vietnam.

Gregory Montes, ’69, ’72 MArch
San Diego, CA

ORIGINAL, Published by Hopkins Grammar School The Class of 1965

Don Ferguson, the eternal optimist with the ready smile, was Editor-in-Chief of the Razor, National Merit Commended Scholar, and Alumni Scholar. He went from HGS to Yale, but was caught up in “the war”–our generation’s war.

Don was killed in Viet Nam on January 13, 1968 in a place called Bienhoa. His name has been immortalized at the Viet Nam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, D.C., but the black granite incision is small consolation.

At our 30th reunion, a living memorial, a prize and scholarship fund, was established in his memory and consecrated in a moving remembrance by Matt D’Alessio who was tutored by Don during his 1969-1970 year at Yale.

The following was printed in the program distributed at the memorial service that took place on Reunion Day, May 13, 1995:

The Ferguson Prize: “At the request of Mr. And Mrs. Franklin Ferguson, ’32 HGS, memorial gifts were sent to the Hopkins Alumni Association to establish a fund to be used for an annual prize in memory of Donald, to be awarded to a boy who best exemplified the Rotary Club motto, “service above self.” After the merger with Day Prospect Hill School in 1972, this was modified to include a girl as well. In 1986, with the permission of Mrs. Ferguson and Richard Ferguson ’63, the fund was transferred to the School with the understanding that the income would be used for scholarships as well as prizes.”

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund posted on 2/20/16:

Yale University Remembers Donald Ferguson

Donald Ferguson was from Hamden, Connecticut. He went to Hopkins Grammar High School in New Haven and graduated in 1965. He was the editor-in-chief of The Razor, the schools monthly newspaper. Donald went on to Yale University and was destined to graduate with the class of 1969. In March of 1966, he became ill and had to leave Yale. Upon recovery, he enlisted in the US Army. Donald belonged to A Company, 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division and was killed in action on January 13, 1968.

Thanks for locating and sending Donald Ferguson’s photo go to Michael Frost and the folks at the Sterling Memorial Library, Manuscripts and Archives Department, at Yale University.

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