Lynchburg alum helps lead fundraising efforts for National World War I Memorial, which celebrates ‘First Illumination’ on Sept. 13

At sunset on Friday, Sept. 13, Phil Mazzara ’70 will join a select group of dignitaries, major donors, and other VIPs for the “First Illumination” of the National World War I Memorial’s centerpiece sculpture, “A Soldier’s Journey.”

The 60-foot-long sculpture, said to be the “largest free-standing, high-relief bronze in the Western Hemisphere,” will be unveiled at Pershing Park, which sits at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue NW and 14th Street NW in Washington, D.C.

Phil Mazzara ’70. Photo by Shealah Craighead.

It was created by renowned sculptor Sabin Howard and cast at a foundry in England. The tableau consists of 38 bigger-than-life figures and tells the beginning-to-end story of an Everyman’s WWI experience.

“A Soldier’s Journey” is the centerpiece of the new National World War I Memorial. It was designed by architect Joe Weishaar and represents a collaboration between the National Park Service, the American Battle Monuments Commission, and the World War One Centennial Commission, established in 2013 by President Barack Obama.

The WWI Centennial Commission was initially tasked with “planning, developing, and executing programs, projects, activities to commemorate” the American World War I centennial in 2018.

The upcoming “First Illumination” represents the culmination of a multiyear, $50-million fundraising effort, which Mazzara helped lead while he was director of development of the Doughboy Foundation — the fundraising arm of the WWI Centennial Commission.

Mazzara started working with the Doughboy Foundation in 2014 as a volunteer.

“They somehow found out that I was a professional fundraiser working in Washington and I had a long-term interest in World War I,” he said. “I began … helping consult on how to hire a consulting firm, working with them on the [request for proposals], how to do prospect research, and things like that.”

On Nov. 11, 2018, Mazzara and his wife, Dee Daly, attended a WWI centennial commemoration service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. “It was magnificent, a stunner,” Mazzara said, adding that “everyone was wearing poppies,” a well-known symbol of WWI remembrance.

During the service, U.S. Sen. John Warner, who died in 2021, recited “In Flanders Field” from memory. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the church,” Mazzara said. “It was unbelievable.”

Afterward, Mazzara was invited to come onboard as the Doughboy Foundation’s director of development. He started in January 2019, after retiring from a 40-year career in professional fundraising.

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