If you’ve been in Downtown Frederick over the last month, you may have noticed that there is new artwork in the windows!

Local mural artist Yemi Fagbohun has been featured all over the world by Fortune 500 companies, but you can also find his work more locally at the Creekside Plaza mural on Carroll Creek, and on the exterior glass at the Common Market on 7th Street. His most recent project, A Portrait of Resilience, is a collaboration with Platoon 22 and African Americans of Excellence (AAOE), and we are honored to have one of the portraits displayed in the form of a window cling on the side of our store.

Capturing the untold stories of veterans, these living tributes give light to the person beyond the uniform: their bravery and sacrifice extending years beyond the battlefield. At the heart of this initiative is the fact that storytelling through art is incredibly healing, especially for our veterans. It allows them to process trauma and reclaim their identity. Colonial Jewelers is proud to be featuring a WWII veteran who is very near and dear: Melvin Hurwitz. 

Melvin is the son of Ben Hurwitz, a jeweler and clockmaker who immigrated to the United States just after the turn of the century and began his own jewelry business. Melvin is the great-uncle of Sarah Hurwitz Robey, who is the fourth generation owner of what is now known as Colonial Jewelers.  Melvin fondly recalls his time working alongside his father, Ben, in the original Westminster location. In the 1940s, Will Hurwitz, Melvin's brother, entered into the family business, and he saw the great potential for a thriving jewelry store in Frederick. Will and his wife Marilyn opened a second location in 1948, and it was such a success that they closed the Westminster store entirely. Through those transitions, Melvin was a great asset to Will in allowing the family business to flourish.

Melvin was one of four brothers who served in WWII, one in each branch. He enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps when he turned 18, and was trained to be a Radio-Gunner on a B17, which was then considered the heavy bomber. Upon enlistment, crews were assembled at McDill Field in Florida before a treacherous journey in January 1944 to the Ipswich area to the 493rd Bomb Group. Hurwitz’s flight record included 11 over Germany, 2 over Czechoslovakia and 2 over Royan, France. He also flew two Chowhoud missions where they flew as low as 300 feet to drop food to the starving Dutch instead of bombs. 

After the war was over, Hurwitz and his crew flew two missions to return French prisoners of war to Chantilly, France. The conditions of the POW camps were such that the crew had to strip them of their garments, burn their clothes, de-louse them, and wrap them in blankets to take them back home. Upon returning to the United States, Hurwitz entered B29 training to go into the war with Japan, but the bomb was dropped and the war ended just one week into his training. 

Hurwitz celebrated his 100th birthday this past March. Regarding his experiences, he says, “there are so many stories to be told of these experiences and hardly any time left. But for an 18-year-young boy who had never been away from home, it was an exciting and memorable period of my life that I have taken with me to the end.”

You can follow along with Yemi, Platoon 22 and the African Americans of Excellence to see the other installments honoring incredible local veterans in a variety of beautiful formats, decorating Downtown Fredeirck in its rich history.