Fort O’s Honor Park has new garden and marker
As a child growing up in Ireland in the 1950s, Kieron Gleeson was accustomed to the annual Remembrance Day services broadcast from England to honor those who had lost their lives during World War I, World War II and other conflicts.
“Lots of Irish joined the British army during World War II,” says Gleeson, who moved to the United States in 1993 and now lives in Rock Spring in Walker County.
Gleeson met Fort Oglethorpe council member Paula Stinnett at church and was soon recruited as a volunteer to help with a public memorial park Stinnett established several years ago: “Honor Park: A Tribute to Those Who Serve.”
“Honor Park,” says Stinnett, “is a place to honor everyone — those who serve and have served in the military, as well as first
responders and others, such as doctors, nurses and teachers and anyone who makes their community a better place.”
Among the many features of the park are small tribute gardens along the wide multi-use trail that winds from one end to the other and links with the trail system throughout the city.
Gleeson recalled a poem from his youth, “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon and approached Stinnett with the idea of including some of it somewhere in Honor Park.
“I’m not sure where I heard the poem,” says Gleeson. “Maybe in school.”
The stanza that made a powerful impact on Gleeson and that ended up engraved on a granite marker at the forefront of a new garden in the park went like this:
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
“Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
“At the going down of the sun and in the morning “We will remember them.” Stinnett says she’s doubly thankful because not only did Gleeson come up with the idea, he financed the entire garden project, including the marker. Gleeson says many others were involved. “I may be from Ireland,” he says, “but I don’t have a green thumb.”
Honor Park is located in Fort Oglethorpe on Cleburn Street, just off Shelby Street.