CSU Professor David Pettigrew, chair of the Philosophy Department, reports that his proposal to designate July 17 as Hiram Bingham IV Day in Connecticut was signed by Governor Ned Lamont on May 19.
Bingham, a Connecticut native, was an American diplomat who served as a vice consul in Marseille, France, during World War II. Along with several humanitarian organizations, he helped more than 2,500 refugees, mostly Jews, escape after the country was defeated by Nazi Germany in June 1940.
The law establishing “Hiram Bingham IV Day,” Public Act No. 26 – 19, recognizes Bingham’s exceptional moral courage and actions in Marseille, 1940-41, where he issued visas and affidavits in lieu of passports to predominantly Jewish refugees to support their escape from France and entry to the United States.
“I’m grateful that my proposal for the day recognizing Hiram Bingham IV was accepted by the Government Administration and Elections Committee, supported unanimously by the Senate and the House, and signed by Governor Lamont,” Pettigrew said. He added that Representative Matt Blumenthal provided crucial support as he included Pettigrew’s proposal for the bill in its language.
According to Pettigrew, Bingham’s humanitarian efforts were in opposition to State Department policy. As a result of his actions Bingham was reassigned to Lisbon and Buenos Aires, which led him to resign from the diplomatic corps and return to Connecticut, where he lived out his life at the family homestead in Salem.
Bingham died in 1988 without having been recognized for his efforts to rescue refugees during the Holocaust, Pettigrew explained. In the early 1990s family members discovered letters and documents and began to raise awareness about his actions. Thanks to their advocacy, Pettigrew said, Bingham received a posthumous award for “Constructive Dissent” from the American Foreign Service in 2002, and a postage stamp was issued in his honor in 2006.
It is Pettigrew’s hope, he said, that Hiram Bingham IV Day will become part of Holocaust commemorations and Holocaust education in Connecticut’s schools. “Such educational activities will foster a culture of remembrance that will combat Holocaust denial, antisemitism, and all forms of hate speech,” he said.
“I have been including Bingham’s story in my Holocaust and Genocide Studies classes,” said Pettigrew, “and for about a decade his story was part of an exhibit that I co-curated in Buley Library. I have also shared the details of his courageous actions with teachers at professional development days.”
On October 15, 2025, Southern hosted the inaugural observance of Varian Fry Day, which commemorated Connecticut native Fry’s heroic efforts to rescue more than 2,000 refugees—many of them Jewish—from Nazi-occupied France during World War II. The initiative was spearheaded by Pettigrew, whose advocacy led to the unanimous passage of Public Act No. 25-59, officially recognizing Fry with a statewide day of remembrance.
Pettigrew was grateful to receive the blessing of the Bingham family for his proposal to the CT General Assembly, and for Robert Kim Bingham’s (Hiram Bingham’s son) written testimony in support of the bill. The Bingham family has asked Pettigrew to assist them in planning a commemoration at a family gathering on July 17, Hiram Bingham IV’s birthday.
