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Discovering The Mature Lifestyle What are your local veterans up to today? See inside

Veterans Issue

May 18 , 2017

May 2017

St. Louis Park vets represent National Guard, U.S. Army BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

MacMillan gr ew up w anting to be a cop . “That was my career goal m y w hole life ,� he Before its b uilding closed said. Prior to his time in the serApril 15, the St. Louis P ark vice, he had gained an AA deAmerican Legion serv ed to gree. After the service , he said, bring together veterans of sev- “I w as a pr ofessional student. eral wars. I had cr edits in psy chology, Among them is Bill MacMil- speech comm unications and lan, a 1967 St. Louis Park High criminal justice.� Eventually, he School gr aduate w ho serv ed earned AA, BA and BS degrees, in the Na tional Guar d f or six plus a certificate specializing in years. He joined the American criminal justice. Legion in 1983. He w orked a t F red G . An“We lost our post home on derson for 15 years, a company Excelsior Boulevard and High- MacMillan said was “once was way 100, � MacMillan said. the lar gest w all-covering stor e “Now we use the Hopkins Post in the U .S.� Then came a 12for our meetings . We’re trying year stint in the insurance busito build out the Masonic T em- ness, plus some time w orking ple on Walker Street, hopefully at the Chamber of Commerce, by August or September.� first as chair of the boar d and The Legion a t one time had then as vice pr esident of mar 600-800 members , said Macketing and sales . He also is a Millan, w ho w as its housing past president of the St. Louis chair f or the first eight y ears. Park Sunrise Rotary. “This year our goal is 147 memThen he began w orking in bers,� he said. business de velopment a t Citi-

Bill MacMillan served in the National Guard for six years. (Submitted photo) Right: A lifelong St. Louis Park resident, MacMillan joined the American Legion in 1983. (Submitted photo) MACMILLAN - TO NEXT PAGE

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Veterans Issue May 2017

Discovering The Mature Lifestyle May 18, 2017

Veterans memorials matter Americans lo ve memorials . roes of all wars can be f ound in As soon as a belo ved cele brity courthouse squar es, par ks and dies, memorials in man y f orms cemeteries all across the nation. begin, almost immedia tely, to Veterans memorials ar e e veryappear ar ound the deceased’s home or faGuest column vorite haunt. Likewise, whenever a teena ger ... by Bob is killed in a car accident, within hours , Ramsey makeshift memorials spring up along the roadside a t the cr ash site. We have a need to preserve our memory of impor- where; and some sta tes are contant indi viduals and gr oups in sidering legisla tion to e xpand some tangible way. potential sites for even more vetThis is especiall y true of v et- erans’ memorials. erans. Memorials f or fallen heObviously, there is a reason for

our lo ve af fair with memorials . My dictionary defines a memorial as: “something [mon ument, holiday, etc.] intended to celebrate the memory of a person or e vent.” V eterans memorials aren’t just ornate edifices named after a w ar, a ba ttle or a b unch of dead soldiers. Memorials celebrate and honor all v eterans and serve as constant reminders of who and what was lost to war and w hy. It is important f or us to remember. If we ever do forget, it means we have yet to learn the lesson of the losses and will have to suffer more losses in the future. I’m not a veteran. I never had

the privilege of serving. Consequently I sometimes feel lik e a probationary citiz en. I ha ven’t paid m y dues. Others ha ve had to pay them for me. So it’s crucial that I’m periodicall y r eminded of my debt. That’s where memorials come in. Memorials not onl y boost our collective memory, they also have special meaning for each of us individually. For e xample, a high school principal I kno w cherished a “rubbing” of the name of a former student he had tak en from the “w all memorial” in W ashington, D. C. He e xplained that the student w orked har d; b ut

still struggled in school and came up a fe w cr edits short a t the end of the 12th gr ade. For some r eason, the principal decided to o ver-ride the rules and graduate the student anyway. Later, the student was killed in action. At his funer al, the bo y’s mother told the principal, “W e are so proud of our son. He was the first person in our famil y to gr aduate fr om high school.” The principal’s exception to the rule has allo wed tha t famil y to feel a special pride in their son ’s memory. That’s just one soldier’ s life RAMSEY - TO NEXT PAGE

St. Louis Park vets recall their piece of history MACMILLAN - FROM PREVIOUS PAGE zens Sta te Bank. “Pr etty soon I w as working 50 hours a w eek training sales people,” he said. “Bank ers need to be half sales people.” Eventually, he owned his own consulting group, the MacMillan group. He retired in 2008, at age 59. Now he and his wife , who is contr oller a t Construction Ma terials, Inc., ar e able to spend w eekends at their cabin in Danbury, Wis. In the meantime , MacMillan is past chair but still active with on the Discover St. Louis Park board, and has been a fire commissioner in St. Louis P ark for 18 years.

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“I enjoy volunteering,” said MacMil- now, along with 60,000 others ,” Davies lan, a 66-year resident of St. Louis Park said. who has a daughter and three grandsons. He has an AA degree from Penn State and a BA degree from the University of Bill Davies Wisconsin. Bill Davies, w ho gr ew up on a far m Davies w orked as a man ufacturer’s in W isconsin and no w is a 45-y ear St. Louis Park resident, is a v eteran who is representative f or his fa ther-in-law’s a lifetime member of the American Le- manufacturing firm from 1969 to 2008. gion and VFW. He served two years with He joined the Rotary in 1982. He was chair of the National Catholic the 101st Airborne Di vision of the U.S. Army, one of them in Vietnam, and was Committee for Scouting, which provides awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious ministry to Ca tholic y outh, and no w serves as vice chair f or finances. Davies service. also serv ed on the Na tional R eligious “Four of us hung ar ound together in Vietnam, and tw o of them ha ve their Relations Committee Davies has w on the Silv er Bea ver names on the w all [V ietnam V eterans award for distinguished service and SilMemorial W all in W ashington, D .C.] ver Antelope award for outstanding service to young people, both presented by the Boy Scouts of America. Davies w as first pr esident of the St. Louis Park Football Association in 2000 and a t one time helped with gir ls’ fast pitch softball. “I started the veterans marching in the Parktacular Parade five years ago,” Davies said. “W e do the Edina par ade on the 4th of July, too.” He and his wife , Kay, a n urse at Abbott Northwestern Hospital fr om 197087, have three children, all gr aduates of St. Louis Park High School. Kay is a member of Patient Partners, a group of 40 retired doctors and nurses who work with pa tients a t the hospital as needed.

Bill Davies served with the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army and was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service. (Submitted photo)

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A.J. Eide , another W isconsin na tive, is a World War II veteran who served in the U.S. Army for two years, 1945-46 on Saipan, an island in the w estern South Pacific. He spent some time in the hospital after being wounded. He and his famil y moved to St. Louis Park in the mid-1950s, and Eide worked as a machinist until he r etired in the 1980s. He also enjo yed r ebuilding old cars.

A.J. Eide, a World War II veteran who has lived in St. Louis Park since the mid-1950s, is shown at a Memorial Day celebration in 2012. (Sun file photo by Jonathan Young) He and his wife had tw o childr en (one deceased), and they now have three grandchildren.

Veterans Issue May 2017

Discovering The Mature Lifestyle May 18, 2017

Veterans memorials have collective and individual meaning RAMSEY - FROM PREVIOUS PAGE narrative. There are other stories behind every name on the wall that deserve to be remembered. Memorials help preserve these memories. It’s a ppropriate tha t w e b uild memorials to our veterans and r evisit them r egularly. But the most significant memorials ar e the ones w e er ect in our hearts and minds.

I’m r eminded of the occasion w hen our gr anddaughter-in-law left her job teaching 3-4 y ear olds. The little students w ere de vastated. Some childr en cried. P arents w ere distr aught. Then one da y, she drew a picture of a large heart and wrote the students’ names inside the picture. One little boy beamed as he told his mother, “Now, I will be in Miss Mar’s heart forever.� That made it all right. It works the same w ay with the internal and e x-

ternal memorials w e create. They help us k eep our “veterans in our hearts f orever.� And tha t’s w here they belong. Bob R amsey is a lif elong educator, fr eelance writer and advocate for vital aging. He can be contacted at 952-922-9558 or b y email at jo yrammini@comcast. net.

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