RADNOR — After tabling the issue last month, Radnor School District officials have changed the name of the road running through the high school campus.
As part of the school board’s consent agenda during this week’s meeting, the board approved an item that renames Raider Road to honor World War II hero Emlen Tunnell.
The private roadway, now known as Emlen Tunnell Way, runs from King of Prussia Road to Radnor Chester Road.
Two years ago, the school’s nickname was changed from Raider to Raptors due to its purported links to the district’s former Native American mascot.
“Administratively, we like the name Emlen Tunnell Way for all the things that, as a Radnor alumni, Mr. Tunnell stood for when it came to not only his life and his connections to Radnor but his service to the country, his acknowledgment of being a war hero and what he did during his service for the country,” Superintendent Kenneth Batchelor said.
The district administration first raised the issue of changing the name at a committee meeting earlier this year. The board was to consider making the change last month, but then a vote was tabled at the request of the administration.
One issue that has been raised over renaming the street for Tunnell is that a section of Garrett Avenue already has an honorific name of Emlen Tunnell Way.
“It’s almost double-named. If you look at the actual placard, there’s the street name that EMS uses and that is recognized by PennDOT, and then there is a placard hanging below it, Emlen Tunnell Way, so I think that is a honorary name for that section of that road only,” said William Dolan, director of operations for the Radnor School District.
During World War II, Tunnell served in the United States Coast Guard and was recognized twice for risking his life to save shipmates on two occasions.
In one case, Tunnell was onboard USS Etamin off Papua New Guinea when the ship came under attack. When a torpedo struck his ship, it had an estimated 6,000 pounds of fuel and ammunition on board. Tunnell entered a burning engine room and saved one of his shipmates.
“He was the only person in the engine room that survived that day because Emlen raced in, grabbed him, put the flames out with his hands – burned his hands severally, and dragged him to higher-level medical care on the ship – the sickbay,” former Commandant of the Coast Guard Karl Schultz said during a 2021 event in Radnor honoring Tunnell.
In a second case, Tunnell risked his life by jumping into the 32-degree waters off Newfoundland and saved the life of a shipmate who had fallen overboard.
In 2021, the Coast Guard honored Tunnell by naming one of its newest ships after him.
After the war, Tunnell, who played football at Radnor, became the first African American to play for the New York Giants. He is also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
