News

At its regular meeting on Tuesday, May 21, the Chehalis School District Board of Directors is expected to vote to accept the resignation of Board President Alan Browning, the district announced Friday.

Browning submitted his resignation to Superintendent Dr. Christine Moloney citing personal and family reasons for leaving the board, according to a news release.

Browning has served on the Chehalis School Board since 2021 after being appointed to fill a vacant seat on the board. He was reelected to the position in November 2023 for a term that would have lasted until 2027.

“President Alan Browning has been a wonderful person to work with and we thank him for his dedicated service not only to our students but to our community,” Moloney said. “Alan is a parent in the district and also an involved community member who cares deeply about the success of all students.  His contributions and insights as a board member and board president have been greatly appreciated, including his work in the volunteer role as the WIAA board representative. Thank you Alan Browning.”

The next step will be for the Chehalis School District to take applications from those wishing to be appointed to the vacant position, according to a news release.

The application deadline is June 4 and initial interviews will happen at the June 18 board meeting.

Interviews with potential candidates will be held in a public meeting, and a majority vote of three or more of the remaining board members would lead to an appointment, according to the news release. If a majority vote for any one applicant can not be reached within 90 days, Educational Services District 113 will appoint someone to the board.

Whomever is appointed to the position will need to run for reelection on the November 2025 ballot in order to serve for the remainder of the term.

Those wishing to apply for this vacancy need to be United States citizens who are registered to vote and reside in the Chehalis School Board Director District No. 2 as defined in the district boundary map that was approved in February 2022.

More information about the open position and expectations for those considering applying can be found at https://chehalisschools.org/2024-board-vacancy/. 

Applications must include a letter of interest, resume and and three to five references. Applications should be submitted to Administrative Assistant Gayle Meister at gmeister@chehalisschools.org or submitted in person or received through mail to the Chehalis School District Office at 310 SW 16th St., Chehalis, no later than June 4.

On Thursday, May 23, the remains of U.S. Army Sergeant George F. Bishop will finally be laid to rest at Claquato Cemetery.

He died on July 28, 1942, according to a U.S Army Human Resources Command news release, and his remains were recently identified. 

The public is invited to attend his funeral ceremony, which will begin at 1 p.m. at Claquato Cemetery, located at 142 Stearns Road in Chehalis. Funeral arrangements have been made by Newell-Hoerling’s Mortuary and Claquato Cemetery Manager Lacie Jendryka.

Bishop died in a World War II Imperial Japanese Prisoner of War (POW) camp in the Philippines after being forced on the Bataan Death March. He was buried in one of the POW camp’s mass graves. Following the war, his remains were never positively identified and were left at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as Unknowns.

Following renewed efforts using DNA analysis by the Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency and scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System, Bishop’s remains were finally identified. Since being notified, his surviving family has been preparing a shadow box for his funeral. They are still looking for a photo of him.

The only remaining mementos they have from Bishop are a Christmas card and a small Filipino doll he sent Stanley Yocom’s mother, who was Bishop’s younger sister, before he was captured and eventually killed.

While no photos have surfaced, Yocom made the shadow box with Bishop’s medals, the Christmas card and doll for the funeral.

Born on Jan. 25, 1920, in Centralia, Bishop enlisted in the U.S. Army on Dec. 29, 1939, just before his 20th birthday.

After getting stationed at Fort Lewis, Bishop deployed and was attached to “K” Battery of the 59th Coast Artillery Regiment at Fort Mills on Corregidor Island, located at the entrance of Manila Bay on the Island of Luzon in the Philippines.   

There, he helped operate fixed seacoast 3-inch artillery guns facing Bataan to the north, along with 30-inch and 60-inch searchlights used to illuminate mine markers in Manila Bay.

On Dec. 22, 1941, Imperial Japanese forces invaded Luzon, and bitter fighting ensued over the next four months until Bataan fell on April 9, 1942, followed by the fall of Fort Mills and Corregidor less than a month later on May 6.

Bishop was officially listed as missing in action the following day. Along with his fellow American and Filipino soldiers, Bishop was forced on the infamous 65-mile Bataan Death March before being sent to the Cabanatuan POW Camp in central Luzon.

Being a POW meant being subjected to inhumane conditions on top of being starved and denied clean drinking water.

It wasn’t long before Bishop contracted diphtheria and dysentery and died in the prison’s hospital on July 28 at the age of 22. He was buried in Cabanatuan’s Common Grave 215.

According to prison hospital records accessed after the Cabanatuan POW Camp was liberated in early 1945, Bishop was one of 22 prisoners who died that day. More than 2,500 American prisoners died at Cabanatuan throughout WWII.

After the Imperial Japanese surrendered and World War II ended, any remains that could be found at Cabanatuan were disinterred by the American Graves Registration Service and brought to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila to attempt to identify them in 1947.

Five bodies from Common Grave 215 were identified, but the rest were declared unidentifiable and buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as Unknowns.

Bishop’s old U.S. Army Individual Deceased Personnel File stated, “George is most likely buried in the Manila American Cemetery as a ‘Known but to God.’ There are 953 men like Sgt. Bishop who were not identified after the war, ‘Unknowns,’ permanently interred in the Manila American Cemetery from Cabanatuan.”

The grave of the Unknowns at the Manila American Cemetery is cared for by the American Battle Monuments Commission.

While in the Navy himself, Yocom served aboard the U.S.S. Winston Andromeda-class attack cargo ship in 1965, just north of Manila Bay on Luzon.

“I spent a year in Subic Bay in the Philippines, and I didn’t even know he was there,” Yocom previously told The Chronicle.

In 2018, renewed efforts by the Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency and scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA and y-chromosome DNA analysis to positively identify Unknown remains.

Other surviving family members of Bishop will also be in attendance at the funeral along with Yocom.