Visit with Our 2025 Honorary Chair - AVHRRC
Dorothy Filmore was born at home outside Morgantown, PA on July 9, 1922. As a first grader, she walked more than a mile to class in a one room schoolhouse. After that year her family moved to a dairy farm close by in Elverson.
She was the oldest of 7 children, the first 4 were girls. Dottie became “Daddy’s girl” doing all the work a son would do, milking the cows, cleaning out the stall and shoveling snow.
She helped to raise her sisters who later helped her mother with the other duties as Dottie did the outdoor work.
Dottie "Dot" Trate - Honorary Chairwomen - 102 Years Young
“I like to do things that are different,” said Dorothy. “I don’t feel 102. I think 102? It just blows my mind. It blows my mind that I can still walk around, think clearly, and take care of myself.”
Dorothy is no stranger to the sky. Just last year, she celebrated her birthday by flying a Bi-plane.
Dorothy worked as a factory worker during World War Two, which qualifies her as “Rosie the Riveter.” Even in her old age, she makes appearances at World War Two events.
Pearl "Willie" Young - Beloved Rosie
Honorary Chairwomen - 100 Years Young
Pearl Young was born in
Charlie Brooking - Gunners Mate Second Class (PT boats in the Pacific)
Honorary Chairman
Charles Brooking was born in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, a small town surrounded by farmland. He was still in high school when he decided to join the U.S. Navy as so many young American’s did after the attack on the US Fleet Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.
Charles was a gunner’s mate second class on several PT boats, while serving in the South Pacific during WW2. His boats were armed with torpedoes and machine guns for cutting enemy supply lines and harassing enemy forces. The Japanese referred to these boats as “mosquito boats.” Charles continued to serve his country in the Navy until 1954, when he was discharged due to injury. He later moved to California and took a job with Inner Urban Express on the freight platform. Charlie is a very amazing man, who’s life has taken many interesting turns.
He would later be part of the printing industry, which is very dear to my heart as I have spent over “50” years myself. The most amazing fact, which I didn’t know, was the boats were made of wooden planks. After the war the entire fleet was burned as they had outlived their usefulness. Without these boats and the sailors, who manned them, the Pacific War might have had a very different outcome. Come to our event this October and have a few conversations with Charlie or in the Navy, swap some sea stories. He is my hero and his life is what makes our country great.
Bill Balabanow (U.S. Merchant Marine during WW2)
Honorary Chairman
Bill Balabanow was born February 17, 1926 in the little town of Blue Ridge Summit in southern Pennsylvania, though the family moved to Lancaster in 1931, and that is where he spent most of his childhood. Bill’s parents divorced when he was an infant, so his parental and family memories come mainly from his mother’s second marriage, and the many sisters that came with it.
Bill’s stepfather was a miner and then a preacher, and the family was able to do well enough against the backdrop of the Great Depression. Bill recalls that he was not much of a student, and that he left school in Grade 10, just as the shadow of war was beginning to fall over the United States. Indeed, when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened, Bill and many friends rushed to join up, though Bill was denied a spot in the army because of medical reasons. The merchant navy did accept Bill though, and he joined up and went to Brooklyn, N.Y. for his training, followed by his first convoy, which went to Marseilles, France with military supplies. They returned to the US with damaged equipment, which was to be repaired and recycled for the war effort. Subsequent journeys saw Bill go through the Panama Canal in route to the Philippines; on the return trip he saw Okinawa and Ulithi – and learned about the atomic bombs and the end of the war.
Bill ended up staying in the merchant marine after the war, making it his career. Early on he did a number of voyages related to the Marshall Plan, where he had the occasion to go to Germany and Poland, and later he completed trips in the Pacific. Bill decided to retire in 1979, and not long after that he began to speak of his early days in the merchant marine, in the process breaking down misconceptions and prejudices that had impacted the merchant marine during its postwar history. He also carried the mantle of remembrance, doing his best to have the wartime contributions of himself and his seamen brethren given official recognition; those efforts led to a congressional gold medal.
Bill Balabanow was interviewed in person by Steven Sidebotham and over zoom by Scott Masters in the fall of 2023, and both interviews are combined here.
