CRESWELL – Creswell is going to have its own personal Memorial Day – a few days before the official national holiday.
Mayor Nick Smith explained the preliminary details at Monday night’s city council meeting.
“On May 25, we’ll do a Proclamation that it’s Col. Richard Heyman Day,” Smith said. “We will fly all the flags on Main Street and recognize him for all he’s done for the country and Creswell, and everybody else who has no idea who he is, but they should know who he is.”
Why May 25? Heyman would be celebrating his 102nd birthday on that day. But less than a month before he was to receive the prestigious Legion of Honor award from France, he died after complications from an illness on Jan. 25.
“We’ll put it on the calendar, and it will be there forever … unless another mayor someday decides to take it down,” Smith said.
Heyman (pronounced HIGH-man) was a fighter pilot in three major wars – World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. His propensity for tinkering with anything mechanical helped him feel comfortable in a cockpit, which is what he always wanted to do.
“I want kids to wonder why, and I want people to go down Main Street and ask, ‘Who’s that?’ Let me tell you who Richard Heyman is, and let’s educate. He’s a war hero, and he sat on the City Council, among all the other things he’s done. He’ll never be forgotten. We need to make sure that all of our war heroes are not forgotten.”
Smith said several of his old friends are making the ultimate sacrifice in fighting for their country.
“I’ve had buddies who I went to high school with who joined the Marines who got shot multiple times and went back multiple times, then got blown up and came back and went back again,” Smith said. “They’re war heroes to me, and I couldn’t do what I do without them.”
