HESLER, Russell Lowell

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.