Their Story
Remembering Victor Gronenthal.
Victor Trouvé Gronenthal was the kind of person a room remembered — an easy smile, a gregarious warmth, and an energy that stayed with everyone who knew him. Born February 24, 1983, in Wilmington, Delaware, he graduated from William Penn High School in 2001, having served as a U.S. Senate Page for Senator William V. Roth Jr. He then entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, earning a Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering with the Class of 2005 and commissioning as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — the branch whose motto, Essayons, "Let us try," he carried through his career.
Over nearly a decade in uniform, Victor completed three overseas tours, two to Iraq and one to Afghanistan, and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal. As a captain, he added a master's degree in Engineering and Industrial Management from what is now Missouri University of Science and Technology.
He married Erika Glausen at West Point on June 24, 2005, and the two built a life together as devoted parents to sons Kai and Finn. Away from duty, Victor was an avid cyclist and outdoorsman with a soft spot for restoring vintage pinball machines.
Major Victor T. Gronenthal died on January 23, 2015, at the age of thirty-one. He was laid to rest with full military honors at Calverton National Cemetery on Long Island on February 9, 2015, survived by Erika, Kai, Finn, his parents, and his brother James.