A 1944 Time Capsule - Was It Ever Opened?
- TONY STEIN
- Jun 13
- 4 min read
Where we left off in the first blog, The Modern Monument had used a crane and confirmed a sealed-in opening and an inscription date of 09-30-60, as best as we can tell based on the image taken.
On Sunday, June 14th, 2026, weather-permitting, we will open this time capsule and find out if it still contains the Jewish Bible, Protestant Bible, and Catholic Bible, as well as the log sheets signed by the children in November 1944 when newspaper articles detail the ceremony which took place involving the schoolchildren.
There was so much planning involved with this event and the Tony Stein family is filled with so much gratitude for how much assistance so many people in the North Dayton community have given towards making this event happen.
Monthly planning meetings were officiated and managed by Jennifer Evans of the Old North Dayton Neighborhood Association. She was an exceptional leader throughout all of this planning. This event would not have taken place without all of her hard work and the help of so many others. Her husband, Matt Tepper, was also an amazing help. Our family owes both of them a huge debt of gratitude for helping us honor Tony's 80th anniversary of his Medal of Honor and get to the bottom of this time capsule mystery.
George "Rocky" Stephens and Tom Mangold, both of whom were recently interviewed by WYSO Veterans Voices about maintaining The North Dayton Patriots Memorial now, and for decades to come.
Jerry Bowling III of the McCook Field Neighborhood Association was also a tremendous help. He created a Facebook page dedicated to the Memorial, ensured the location of it was tagged in Google Maps, created the event on Facebook, and worked hard to ensure the signs for the Tony Stein Memorial Bridge which had been removed were replaced.
Jerry was also recently interviewed by WYSO Veterans Voices regarding the Memorial not having the American Flag.
Note: If you want to listen to one more WYSO Veterans Voices interview, my mother Susan and I were interviewed to discuss Tony. It was an honor.
One of the City of Dayton's planners, Elizabeth Dakin, was a great help. A few others I'd like to shout out and name are Commander Dave Todd of American Legion Post 619. Post 619 was chartered for Tony Stein decades ago and it is solely due to Dave it is still standing in Tony's name.
One of the biggest reasons it is the smallest legion in the state of Ohio is due to its location and low membership. The winter costs alone to keep it heated and running are costing more than any income it is pulling in and Dave Todd has been personally and financially covering the costs to keep it open.
Our family can never thank him enough. The GoFundMe which was opened years ago to assist with the keeping Post 619 up and running is still open for donations. If you can donate anything at all, it is very much appreciated.
**In the future, our family will help Commander Dave Todd with a few annual fundraising events as a community to try to further assist him (or any new Commander of Post 619). If you are in the North Dayton community and ever want to receive notice of these future fundraising events, follow this blog for news and also follow the Post 619 Facebook page Dave manages.
The Modern Monument also deserves a special call-out. They have been such an amazing help from the time they were contacted about questions regarding a time capsule sealed within the Memorial. They arranged to use a crane in the cold of winter, captured the only images we have of what will be opened in less than 48 hours from now. They also designed the flyer for the Flag Day event and will do the honors of scoring and opening the time capsule.
Gene Saunders with Veterans Affairs through Representative Mike Turner's office has been wonderful in trying to involve the Marine Corps and assist in any and every way he can.
Reba Gilbert is a wonderful person and we are incredibly grateful for her taking her personal time and filmmaking expertise to create a documentary of this historical event. She is a member of DATV and I look forward to working with her after the event to create a record of the day we can show to the public and put in a new time capsule to be opened another several decades from now. We know she will do a great job and we cannot ever thank her enough.
Even if the time capsule ends up being empty and we all laugh and shrug, the real meaning behind the event isn't the public spectacle of solving this mystery and seeing what's there-- it is honoring those from the North Dayton community who paid the ultimate price for freedom.
It is honoring two new names being added.
It is honoring the 80th anniversary of the posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor awarded to Corporal Tony Stein of the United States Marine Corps Reserve.
It is honoring 250 years of American liberty and freedom and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice so we could have this free and public event soon.
Also, a Special Thanks to FC Industries on Webster St. in Dayton and Kiser Alumni for allowing us to use their room for the many months of meetings planning this event.
It is 2AM as I am writing this and it is offically Saturday morning, June 13th. In seven hours, I need to be awake, showered, alert and physically at the Memorial to help with cleanup before Sunday.
I just really wanted to get this all documented in time so I truly hope I did not forget anyone important we needed to thank. If so, I will edit this later.
This is already too lengthy of a blog post so I'm going to conclude this here and start a new post to review the event program and what to expect if you are attending. :)
