Recent Memorial Days have seen several generations of veterans marching or riding at the front of Harvard’s parade. Veterans from World War II or the Korean War have stepped in unison with those young enough to be their sons or grandsons, people who have served in Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, or Iraq. About 20 veterans marched in the 2008 Memorial Day parade, while many others attended as spectators.

Veterans’ Agent Dennis Lyddy hopes that even more will take part this year. Participants will gather at the Town Hall at 9:45 a.m., with the parade moving off at 10 a.m.

More than 280 veterans live in Harvard and Devens, according to Lyddy.

Color guards Jim DeZutter, Oleh Dutkewych, Duncan Chapman, and Steele Kenyon stand at attention during last years' Memorial Day celebration. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Lifelong Harvard residents Bill Doe and Jim Dunlap, both veterans of World War II, marched in the parade for many years. Doe served in the South Pacific, having left college in his sophomore year to volunteer for the Marine Corps. In explaining why he believed it was important to take part in the parade, Doe stressed the debt that the nation owes to its soldiers. “I’m just grateful to the guys who didn’t make it,” he said, “and want to draw attention to what they did.”

Dunlap volunteered for the Army, where his college major in mathematics led him to anti-aircraft artillery training. He served first at Camp Davis in North Carolina, where he taught artillery skills, and then joined American troops in Normandy after D-Day. Even before World War II, Dunlap recalls joining in Memorial Day parades as a Boy Scout.

Nancy Dunlap, his wife, also remembers seeing Harvard’s parades when she came to town to visit her grandfather. In those days, the youngest soldiers were veterans of World War I, while the oldest had fought in the Civil War. Nancy Dunlap recalls the last survivors of the Grand Army of the Republic riding in open cars at the head of the parade.

Memorial Day traditions began in the aftermath of the Civil War, in which an estimated 620,000 American soldiers died. Harvard sent about 130 men to fight in the Union army between 1861 and 1865. For a town of only 1,500 inhabitants, it was a large share. Many families saw more than one member march away—seven Athertons, six Whitneys, and three Sawyers, for example. Twenty-two Harvard soldiers died in the war.

Even while the Union army grimly fought its way toward Richmond in June 1864, Harvard residents voted to raise “a monument to our brave men who have fallen in the service—their names to be inscribed thereon.” The statue that now stands on the “little” Common was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1888. The white marble woman represents Memory, strewing flowers in honor of the men whose names appear below.

Almost as soon as the Civil War ended, women’s groups in the South—where most of the fighting had taken place—organized to tend the graves of the thousands of soldiers who had been buried far from their homes and families. Northerners, too, selected a spring day for memorial ceremonies. In 1868, General John Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, ordered that May 30 be the official day for laying flowers on the graves of Union soldiers. By 1890, all northern states had made this date an official holiday, but southern states did not recognize the same date until after World War I.

Harvard’s World War I memorial stands on the Common; it contains a list of those who served. Many of the family names are the same as those who had served two generations earlier in the Civil War—Abbot, Bigelow, Dickson, Savage, Whittemore. Not far away is the monument honoring the soldiers of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

Army veteran Steve Cronin, who teaches fifth grade, is pleased that Harvard’s schools are including projects on Memorial Day so that younger students begin to understand the meaning of the ceremonies. “I remember marching as a Boy Scout,” he said, “and it was essentially the same route as today. It was something we did every Memorial Day, not fully understanding why we did it. It’s good that the schools are having these projects and events.”

Among those who have been active in local veterans’ affairs in recent years are Paul Johnston, a veteran of the Korean War who often helped to organize the parade; Navy veterans Don Green and Ron Ricci; Air Force veteran Jim DeZutter; Army veterans Steve Cronin, Nancy Cronin, and Duane Barber; and Marine Corps veteran Jonathan Blinn, recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, several Harvard residents are still on active duty.