The Office of Veteran and Military Affairs (OVMA) recently unveiled a plaque honoring two of Syracuse University’s military-connected alumni at the National Veterans Resource Center at the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Building. Brothers Charles Vincent “Vin” Byrne ’47 and William M. “Bill” Byrne ’49,  who were the prominent leaders of the Central New York business Byrne Dairy, were inducted into the Capt. Floyd “Ben” Schwartzwalder Hall of Honor, where their legacy will live alongside more than a century of notable military-connected University alumni.

“As we honor Bill and Vin Byrne, we celebrate not only their individual accomplishments, but also the enduring legacy of a generation that changed Syracuse University, strengthened our nation and demonstrated what is possible when service, education and opportunity come together,” says retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Dwayne Murray, deputy director of the OVMA, who emceed the ceremony. “Their journey reminds us why Syracuse University’s commitment to veterans remains as important today as it was 80 years ago.”

The Byrne brothers’ Syracuse story began in the early 1940s, when boxing was one of the University’s marquee sports. In 1943, the brothers made collegiate boxing history when Vin Byrne won the Eastern Intercollegiate Flyweight Championship and Bill won the Eastern Intercollegiate Middleweight Championship, the first time brothers had claimed Eastern Intercollegiate boxing titles in the same year. Later that  same year, with the country at war, both brothers left campus to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps and join the 16.1 million who served in the U.S. armed forces throughout World War II.

The Byrne Brothers Return With the G.I. Bulge

Bill and Vin’s return to Syracuse charts a course through an impactful decision the University made at the closing of World War II that still defines its legacy today. Following the war, Chancellor William Pearson Tolley opened Syracuse’s doors to returning veterans on the G.I. Bill, at a time when many colleges were reluctant to do so. More than 7,000 veterans enrolled at the university that fall, growing to 9,500 the following year, making up nearly half the student body. Bill and Vin Byrne were part of that wave, often referred to as the “G.I. Bulge.”

The discipline they built at Syracuse, in the ring and in their military service, followed them into business. Their father, Matthew Byrne, founded Byrne Dairy in Syracuse in 1933, bottling milk and delivering it by horse-drawn wagon. Bill and Vin took over as the family’s second generation of leadership and ran the business the way they’d trained for military service: prepared, disciplined and unwilling to cut corners.

That foundation has carried the Byrne family through multiple generations since. Three of those five generations returned to campus to see the plaque unveiled, from Bill and Vin’s own children to great-grandchildren just starting their careers.

That through line, from campus to combat to career, was the catalyst to bring the Byrne brothers’ story to the Hall of Honor.

“Some of us spent decades in close relationships with Vin and Bill, and others of us were born decades after their passing. That makes it hard, and it means that those of us who knew them well have a responsibility to the younger generations to tell the stories of their lives to their great- grandchildren and their great-great grandchildren,” says Bill Byrne, past president of Byrne Dairy and a member of the family’s third generation. “Bill and Vin have left an amazing legacy that deserves to be passed down to their family, and this display will tell some of their story to the community.”

To mark the occasion, the Byrne family and the OVMA announced the William M. Byrne ’47 and Charles “Vinnie” Byrne ’49 Endowed Scholarship for military-connected students, made possible through Byrne Dairy. The gift also supports the football head coach’s fund and the Veterans Legacy Fund.

Bill Byrne unveiled the commemorative plaque on behalf of the family and Byrne Dairy, on what he noted, by coincidence, would have been William M. Byrne’s 104th birthday.

For more information about Syracuse University’s notable military-connected alumni, and to find out about the programs and services available to military-connected students, visit the OVMA website.