Hesler - Rrussell - Link - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Source: Unknown (assumedly Crawfordsville Journal Review but no date)

The following letter, written by Walter Remley, a long-time

friend, pays tribute to Russell L. (Link) Hesler as a Legion-

naire:

To The Editor:

In bidding farewell to one of our dearest and longest friends

and certainly the greatest American Legionnaire in our

community, Russell (Link) Hesler, it is so sad that we near-

ly always wait until it is too late to give them the honors which

they have earned and deserved.

Jim Hook, Commander of Byron Cox Post, first talked to

me about having a Link Hesler night last summer, but at the

time we were all so deeply involved in the Crawfordsville

Centennial that there just seemed no time to take on any-

thing more.

But immediately after the Centennial, Commander Hook

appointed a committee for such a night consisting of Past Com-

manders Owen Crecelius, George Burns, Charlie Curtin

and Andy Browning with myself as chairman and asked us to

get busy immediately on such a project. We had several meet-

ings on what and how to do it and finally decided to bring

Link in on one of our meetings to brief him on our plans so that

he would not be too overwhelmed. He seemed overjoyed and

we thought we were all set.

We picked Thursday night, Nov. 16, as Hesler night and had

a wonderful program planned and had given the project pub-

licity all over the department, so that we would have had lots

of Link's friends here from all over Indiana.

A beautiful framed citation was prepared to give him a sub-

stantial sum of money collected for gift certificates. But about

a week before Nov. 18 we realized that Link would not be able

to go through with the sort of gala evening we had planned

and he admitted to me that it was worrying him, so at his sug-

gestion we put it off until some time after the first of the year.

As weeks went by, we sadly realized that we would have to

give up completely the sort of party we had hoped to give him

so we quietly planned without even letting him know about it

to make the presentations of the gifts at the Christmas Eve

Party at the Post, but again Link could not make that. So

after a thorough session of the committee shortly after the

first of the year we gave the gifts to him in the privacy of

his room at the Monon Hotel.

A little later Link wrote the Post one of his characteristical-

ly appreciative letters, as only he could do it and now he's gone

to his eternal reward and all our Post members will realize

more and more these next few months just how much responsi-

bility Link still carried at the Post. He will really be missed.

I was in Culver Hospital from Feb. 1 to Feb. 24 and getting to

see and visit with him so often (as we were only doors

apart on the third floor) was one of the compensations of my

stay in the hospital. Members of my family also visited with

him daily, but the day I left I had the feeling that that might

be our last visit, but he gave me a hearty handshake and a

cheery parting, "I'll hope to be seeing you soon.”

After the gifts were presented to him in January, I made up a

list of the 69 donors to the fund which came from the Legion

Posts at Veedersburg, New Ross Ladoga, Greencastle and Byron Cox Post and it's auxiliary and his fellow employees at The Journal-Review and presented it to him.

Mrs. Mary Burns had also presented him a beautiful wrist

watch as a part of the project. We also presented him a copy

of the remarks we made about him in our December Post radio

program, which he appreciated having.

We stated that we doubted if anyone in this area could equal

or surpass his record as a good Legionnaire and to substantiate

the statement I quote direct from the script:

"Link grew up in Crawfordsville, graduating from high

school here and from Wabash College in 1917, where he was a

member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. He attended the

first Officers' Training Camp in the spring of 1917 and was com-

missioned as a Second Lieutenant and served until the end of

the War in November of 1918. He was active in getting the

Post organized in 1919 and has been a forty-seven year contin-

uous member. As a continuous member of The Journal-Review

staff he has written stories totaling thousands of inches

about Legion activities over the years, which have contributed

immeasurably in making Byron Cox Post one of the outstanding

years, which have contributed immeasurably in making Byron

Cox Post one of the outstanding Posts of Indiana. He has filled

every office in the Post, except chaplain, Finance officer and

service officer. He has undoubtedly attended more Legion

meetings over a longer period of time than any other member of

our Post and has taken an active part in nearly every phase of

the Post's many, many activities. He has been especially

active on membership and on the Memorial 'committee. He

has handled the latter so well, which is now such a big project

at Memorial time, that it hasn't been necessary for several years

to get the cooperating organizations together before Memorial

Day for each one knows so well what is expected of them. He

has written thousands of letters, and sent sympathy and get well

cards to bereaved families and individual Legionnaires or mem-

bers of their families who were sick or injured in accidents—

this has been at his own expense for postage, even though the

Post had authorized postage for him. He is currently a member

of the Membership, Visitation and Memorial Committees and

a valued member of the Post's Executive Committee, whose

judgment is respected and honored by other members of the

committee. He had also continued to write the copy for the

monthly Post Bulletins and articles for The Journal-Review

about the Post's doings. He also handled all the publicity as he

had done for many years for the Christmas Fund for the Sun-

shine Society just before Christmas. And he was Byron Cox

Post's first Life member. What a Legionnaire—he's hung up a

record that will never be exceeded and perhaps not even

equalled.”  

      “Walter B. Remley, chaplain

      and past commander Byron

      Cox Post No. 72.

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