This year’s Memorial Day was a rainy one, but the Rindge Veterans Association still hosted the annual parade and services to remember fallen veterans at the town’s cemeteries and war memorials.

The final salute was at Veterans Memorial Park on the Common, led by Craig Clark, the organization’s president.

Along with the Memorial Day events, Clark said association members takes part in funerals, provide an honor guard at Conant High School, give a $1,000 scholarship to a Conant High School graduate and make presentations to students about being a veteran.

“It’s a small organization dedicated to local activities,” he said.

Clark, who has lived in Rindge for 45 years, is the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript Hometown Hero for August. In nominating him, William Herzog wrote of Clark’s service in the veterans association and as a Trustee of Trust Funds are “just the tip of the iceberg of how much Craig helps the citizens of Rindge.”

Clark was a Signal Corps officer in the Army – where he served from 1972 to 1987, reaching the rank of captain – and said he “mixed my vocation with my avocation for my entire career,” which included stints as assistant publisher for Ham Radio magazine and Ham Radio Horizons. Herzog wrote that Clark’s “knowledge of internet access” as a member of the town’s Teltech Committee “and all things radio has been helpful to so many of us in Rindge.”

Clark, 72, is in the second year of his two-year term as president of the Rindge Veterans Association. He said the best part about being in the organization is honoring and being with his fellow veterans.

“We share a common brotherhood and sisterhood,” he said.

The biggest challenge, he said, is attracting younger members. Most of the current members are Vietnam veterans or Vietnam-era veterans like himself.

“They’re working full-time, and they’ve got families,” he said of younger veterans.

Clark’s story was similar, as he said he was only peripherally involved until he retired in 2012. He said he also never took his veteran’s tax exemption until then.

“I figured as long as I was working, I could afford it,” he said.

Regarding his town activities, Clark is in his third term as a Trustee of Trust Funds, and chairs both that board and the Capital Improvement Program Committee.

“I grew up in town politics in Connecticut,” he said. “My father was the chair of the local Republican committee. I also worked for the town I grew up in for two years.”

Each month, the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript will recognize one of our region’s many Hometown Heroes. Nominate a Hometown Hero at tinyurl.com/3ctykcnv.