I am looking for anyone who may know my dad, Neal Bellos. I only wish I had done this sooner. My dad went through open heart surgery to replace the aortic valve, reinforce a mitral valve, and perform a single bypass in December 2009, all this from a blood infection. He had been in the hospital since early November. His 84th birthday was on Nov. 6. He came home from all this about mid-March, and is taking a slow road back.

Can you put my dad on the mailing list? His address is 4843 Carey Drive, Manlius NY 13104.

My dad, after he came home, seems to have tried very hard to put his experiences behind him. He rarely spoke about actual events. He has a yearbook of sort for the Checkerboards produced sometime after the war. He says he was near Elsenborn and woke up one morning to hear German being spoken in every direction. He and whoever he was with, waiting for nightfall, crept away to find the U.S. lines, which they were successful in doing. Eventually he was evacuated with trench foot, handed the medic his M1, and never returned to the line. He receives disability to this day for his feet.

He went on to graduate from the University of Rochester, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, and finally received his Doctorate from Syracuse University, where he taught at the School of Social Work for almost 30 years until finally forced to retire.

He is known as Dr. Bellos professionally with his Ph.D. He married Gwynne Finkleman in Dayton OH, in January 1959, so they just celebrated their 51st anniversary. Luckily, they remain lifelong partners to this day. Besides myself, I have a sister, his daughter Betsy. She attended Syracuse University, and received her master’s degree from the same School of Social Work where our dad taught graduate classes.

I have a few photo postcards of him from his period in the Army. He looks so young. He has some pictures of buddies from boot camp and his sergeant.

Jonathan Bellos

3 Ashwood Dr.

Scottsville NY 14546

Jonathanbellos1@gmail.com