From the archives: Winchester man built a World War II memorial for Randolph County veterans
In honor of Memorial Day, The Star Press is revisiting this article from 2010 by the late John Carlson, a longtime writer for the newspaper who often wrote about local veterans. Carlson, who retired from The Star Press in 2014, died in April. The subject of this article, Harold Hawley, appears to have died in 2015, but the monument he built remains, a familiar sight to everyone who passes by Goodrich Park, according to Winchester Street and Parks Superintendent Shean Bosworth.
WINCHESTER, Ind. — When Harold Hawley decided to build a monument to Randolph County's World War II veterans, he didn't waste time raising money.
He raised bricks.
"I've been working on it about half a year to get it all done," Hawley said on a sunny morning in 2010, standing alongside the white-brick monument situated on the northeast corner of Goodrich Park.
A bricklayer with a half-century's experience, Hawley expertly created a monument that stands about shoulder-high, the structure itself holding a wooden frame bordering a see-through plate under which of all of Randolph County's World War II veterans are listed.
For the record, that's about 2,800 names, each one small but legible.
To the rear of the monument rises a flagpole bearing an American flag. Before it is a freshly-poured sidewalk. Work left to do before the monument's Sept. 11 dedication service includes lining the sidewalk with more American flags, and possibly mounting two eagles on its top, flat surface.
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As Hawley visits the monument, pondering what to do next, interested folks drop by to chat.
"Somebody stops every day and asks about it," he said.
This particular morning they included a relative, a town worker arranging to have the site cleaned and landscaped and Kent Hendrickson, a deputy sheriff in plain clothes, who handed Hawley a personal check for $100 as a donation to the project.
Other folks have also donated money, and a professional concrete worker, Ronie Rector, donated labor, but Hawley has built and paid for most of it himself.
Why?
"It just made me feel good," he explained.
That also explains why he built a monument in Union City in 2009 to honor his late friend John H. Kirwin, who was a young Navy TBF Avenger torpedo plane pilot when he won the Navy Cross for his key role in sinking the Japanese battleship Yamato in April 1945.
"He was in a squadron with six planes," Hawley said, "and he made two direct hits on it."
A friend and golf partner of Kirwin's after the war, the bricklayer said he decided people needed to know the heroics of the wartime pilot, and later businessman and community leader, who died in 1998.
"He was a nice guy," he said, discussing building Kirwin's monument. "I just built it on my own. But then a lot of people here in Winchester said, 'Why not do something for us?'"
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And that was why on a Saturday in September 2010, Winchester would dedicate the monument Hawley built here.
For the record, we should note that the monument builder's name is among the 2,800 veterans — members of what is now known as The Greatest Generation — that are listed in it.
His own WW II Navy service came on the destroyer escort U.S.S. Peiffer, as indicated by the black baseball cap he wears. On the back of that cap, the word "Cookie" reveals his wartime nickname, as well as the job he filled, and the ranks of campaign ribbons pinned to the side of the cap reveal where his service took him.
But back to his monument...
Look closely, and you'll find more Hawleys listed, bearing simple witness to the kind of commitment it took to win that war.
"I've got four brothers on there, too," the bricklayer said, looking at the list.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: From the archives: Winchester man built a World War II memorial
