About the Memorial

The effort to create a Memorial started with B. Thomas Ward in June of 2000. Ward had the idea of building a memorial to “recognize those in our community who paid the supreme price to preserve our liberty and freedom.” Tom’s original idea was to have a memorial in Latham Park. Tom, an Army veteran, knew that he would have to enlist a strong community leader to make this happen. He reached out to William F. “Bill” Craft, a Coast Guard veteran to ramrod the effort. Bill began reaching out to veterans who would serve on the memorial committee or advise in matters of historical accuracy, architecture and design, construction and finances

The task of writing the history of the Guilford County Veterans Memorial, dedicated on September 14, 2002 would have been a daunting task if left to memory of the few members of the original committee who are still alive. Fortunately, one of the original members; Nathan B. (Ned) Harrison who wrote for the Greensboro News & Record published an account in great detail as to how this Memorial came to be. Ned’s article was published in the People & Places section of the News & Record on September 8, 2002 just weeks before the dedication. Most of the information on this page comes from the article by Ned and he should certainly be credited for this historical perspective. The title of Ned’s article was “Finally, a monument.” Ned elaborated that it had been 55 years since the end of WWII and there was no monument in Guilford County to recognize those who served or contributed to our war effort during WWII or the many military actions since that time.