Story of the month February 2012 Col. Edward C. Mack

This is a reprint of the story of the month for February 2012 on Nanticoke History Online.org.  Our web site is a way for us to talk to you and our blog is a way for you to talk back to us. I try to find stories of interest about our area that you may not find on your own and post them here. If you have once lived here and moved away but would like to know a little about whats happening around town or the area, I will try to fill you in with what I find. 


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Edward C. Mack

Many residents of Nanticoke may not know that Mack Street was opened in 1959 and was named in honor of Col. Edward C. Mack, a Nanticoke native and WWII Veteran.

As early as high school, the youth distinguished his self by defeating a wrestler by the name of Joe Mott, who challenged all comers at a carnival in Lincoln Field.

Mack, a West Point graduate, was stationed with the US Army in the Panama Canal from 1931 to 1933 and then Fort Wadsworth.

Col. Mack was one of three soldiers from Nanticoke captured by the Japanese during WWII. The men were tortured and used as slave labor until the end of the war. Despite painful injuries after the surrender of Corregidor, he continued to help and minister to the troops of his command until his death as a prisoner of the Japanese. Joseph L. Stepanski, another Nanticoke native, later recalled that Col. Mack was “a fine soldier and gentleman.”

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