Salute to Abraham
CENTER TWP — A World War II veteran from Lyndora is expected to be honored as the namesake of the new VA Butler Healthcare building in Center Township.
The honoree is Abie Abraham, a World War II hero and prisoner of war survivor, who died in 2012.
Promoting his name for the building is U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-3rd, of Butler who introduced the building's naming as the Abie Abraham VA Clinic in a bill that passed the House on Tuesday and has moved on to the Senate.
It will need the president's signature to become official.
“Whenever that may occur, we'll be sure to mark the occasion accordingly,” said Tom Qualtere, director of communications for Kelly.
He added that there is no time estimate for how long the process might take.
In a speech Tuesday on the House floor, Kelly said, “Abie Abraham is the epitome of the values of our nation, our military and our veterans, and a great inspiration to all Americans. It is truly fitting that the new health care center in Butler County, Pennsylvania, be named after him.”
The 168-square-foot facility, which will be on North Duffy Road, is valued at $163 million over the 20-year term of the VA's lease with developer Cambridge Healthcare Solutions.
It is expected to be open later next year. It is replacing the VA Medical Center on West New Castle Road in Butler Township.
Qualtere said, “Since it passed the House unanimously, nobody sees any obstacles for it to be voted upon or passed in the Senate just as easily as it took the House.”
Kelly was motivated to name the building after Abraham because of his personal friendship with him as well as Abraham's war heroics and extensive volunteering at VA Butler Healthcare.
David Cord, VA Butler Healthcare director, said, “There were discussions about honoring Abie in this way, which clearly the VA Butler supported that Abie's history of services speaks for itself, but a lot of people don't realize his history of being a volunteer here.”
Abraham's widow, Christine Abraham of Connoquenessing Township, said this morning that she is honored to hear that the VA might be named for her husband, who she said dedicated much of his time to helping fellow veterans at the VA Center in Butler.
She said her husband put in 20 years of service at the VA and logged 38,000 volunteer hours — most of them as a greeter at the VA, where he acted as veterans' first point-of-contact at the facility.
“He (Abie) deserves it,” Christine said. “He would go in Monday through Friday; he believed in helping the vets. He knew how the guys felt, and to him that was the best job. He was really the concierge of the VA.”Abraham was born in 1913 in Lyndora. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and then the Army, in 1932. He served around the world in the Philippines, China, Germany and Panama, where he became a lightweight boxing champion and trainer.In World War II, Abraham fought, was captured, endured the Bataan Death March, and was a prisoner of war for 3½ years. During this time, Abraham was beaten, stabbed and shot, and survived starvation and malaria before being rescued, Kelly noted in his speech to the House,After Abraham was rescued, he stayed behind for 2½ more years to recover the bodies of dead U.S. soldiers from the march, helping to identify them and to give them a proper burial.He returned to the U.S. and served as a military recruiter before retiring as a first sergeant after 30 years.Even after retiring, his work with the military wasn't finished. Kelly noted Tuesday that Abraham logged 36,851 hours of volunteer service with VA Butler Healthcare.Abraham also kept busy as a bartender and as a foreman for the state Department of Transportation and the state Highway Department in the 1960s.He made his way into the Guinness Book of Records for tree sitting in Alameda Park, wrote two books, “Ghost of Bataan Speaks,” in 1971, and “Oh God Where Are You?” in 1997, and received the Purple Heart and the Ellis Island Family Heritage Award.When Abraham died at the age of 98, he was survived by his wife, three daughters, two stepsons, and many friends and admirers.One such admirer is Jim Dittmer, American Legion Post 117 commander.“Abie was a fantastic man,” he said. “He was very fluent, a very good speaker. He was a good guy, and he went through a lot in life.”
