After years on the road, East Hartford couple’s traveling World War II Museum takes root
Michael Puffer
Gary Roy, president of the World War II Legacy Foundation, holds a Japanese helmet inside a portion of the new World War II Museum in East Hartford
In a 3,000-square-foot, first-floor commercial office on a quiet side street in East Hartford, Gary Roy and Marianne Mihalyo have started outfitting a museum to honor World War II veterans.
The husband-and-wife team has already spent nearly seven years lugging WWII display cases and artifacts on a 24-foot trailer across Connecticut to car shows, town events, historical societies, senior centers, libraries and other stops.
Eventually, the collection became too large, and the couple began looking for a location for a permanent display. They found it driving around their hometown of East Hartford, when they spotted a for-rent sign on a brick-sided commercial strip center at 102 Pitkin St.
Their space had previously hosted a dance studio and rehabilitation center.
“We figure it has come to the point we can’t put everything in that little (traveling) museum, and we can’t use that museum in the bad weather and winter,” Roy said. “Now, we won’t have to hunt for space for lectures and events.”
The couple launched the nonprofit World War II Legacy Foundation in 2022. Their World War II Museum’s displays include an enormous poster of U.S. Marines raising the flag at the battle of Iwo Jima. It is a rescued portion of a highway billboard so large that it drapes from the edge of the 10-foot ceiling and covers a portion of the floor beneath.
Another section of wall is covered by a 22-foot by 14-foot U.S. Flag that had been owned by Stan Dembrowski, a Navy corpsman from New Britain.
There are also helmets, bolo knives, uniforms, documents, field gear, maps and more -- all displayed on tables and in cases. Among the artifacts are the green U.S. Marines uniforms of Carl W. Hjerpe, of Kensington, and Frank Peters, of Windsor. Some artifacts are donated or are on loan from families of deceased servicemembers.
Others were purchased at tag sales.
Mihalyo’s father served on the Navy destroyer USS Ellet during World War II. She started volunteering with veterans’ remembrance efforts after attending a dedication of the National Iwo Jima Memorial in New Britain in 1995. She met Roy in 2002.
Together, the couple, who are in their early 60s, are devoted to maintaining the legacy and memory of those who served. The new museum will allow for permanent and more elaborate displays, as well as a meeting place for veteran groups and an educational stop for youth.
Mihalyo and Roy hope to open the museum with regular hours beginning in May or June. It will start with weekend hours, as the museum will be manned by the couple and other volunteers.
Roy and Mihalyo launched the East Hartford site after raising $24,000, but expect annual rent, insurance and other costs of about $50,000. They hope having a brick-and-mortar presence will help them raise the necessary funds. They also hope to raise enough additional funding to buy better display cases, mannequins and to pay for uniform restorations.
The couple felt a sense of urgency, given the advanced age of the remaining WWII veterans they know, who are in their mid-90s or older.
“It’s one of those things that can’t wait another two or three years,” Roy said. “You can’t wait another three, or four or five years until you raise a ton of money.”
For more information, visit ww2legacyfoundation.org.
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