Fred Taylor ’43 featured in D-Day story

  • June 13, 2024
Fred Taylor ’43—who missed his Cornell graduation in 1943 to serve in World War II—was featured in The Gazette on June 12, 2024, following his honor flight for the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France. 
Fred Taylor '43 pictured holding his Cornell college diploma at the 2023 commencement
Fred Taylor ’43 after he walked the stage at Cornell’s Commencement in 2023. Photo by Megan Amr.

The Gazette story by Vanessa Miller was based in part on a widely disseminated Associated Press photo showing Taylor with two young soldiers. She wrote:

Flanked on either side by younger American soldiers — including 2023 Prairie High School graduate, Cadet Third Class Sawyer Slezak, 19 — Taylor, an Iowa native and Cornell College graduate, peered out into the eerily peaceful waters that decades ago teemed with bloodshed and bravery.


“I honestly think if Fred could have went as far as he wanted to, he might have taken a swim,” Slezek said of his experience escorting Taylor down the sandy beach in northern France during the veteran’s nine-day Honor Flight trip commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day.


Miller interviewed Taylor, 103, by phone at his home in San Diego after the trip. From her story:  

The group, through their tour of Paris up to northern France, shook the hands of actors Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise, director Steven Spielberg, President Joe Biden, and French President Emmanuel Macron. But some of the most memorable encounters were with the French people, Fred Taylor said.


“Everywhere we went, people were lined up on both sides — cheering and wanting to shake hands,” he said


Cornell College honored Taylor in 2023 when he walked the stage at Cornell’s Commencement, 80 years after he would have received his diploma.