Forrest Gump's Briefcase

In the spring of 2011 Wayland High School in West Roxbury, Boston was preparing to move to a new location and Kevin Delaney, head of the history department, had to decide which of the department’s materials would make the move. He unfastened the lid  of an old gray briefcase in the department's storage room and began to page through the documents contained inside. What he found there astonished him: the papers of Martin W. Joyce, a long-since deceased West Roxbury resident who began his military career as an infantryman in World War I and ended it as commanding officer of the liberated Dachau concentration camp in 1945.

Delaney couldn’t have imagined when he first popped open the suitcase that day, Joyce would turn out to be something akin to Boston’s own Forrest Gump—a perfect set of eyes through which to visit America’s past.

The Briefcase is the story of how the class uncovered the story of Joyce's fascinating life. It's worth the read.

Thanks Bruce!