Mosley steps down after nearly sixty years of service
Published on June 14th, 2006
STONEHAM, MA - Stoneham resident Fred Mosley's six-decade run on the Memorial Day Parade Committee ended last week as the Navy veteran relinquished his Chairman's gavel to his counterparts.
According to the lifelong Stoneham resident, who surrendered the leadership role after overseeing this year's Memorial Day ceremonies at Town Hall, his almost 79-year-old body has just grown too tired for the responsibility.
"I'm running out of gas," he told fellow board members last Thursday night. "I started doing this in 1947. I'm think it's time for somebody else to step-up."
Reflecting on his nearly 60-year stint of service on the Memorial Day Parade Committee, Mosley's biggest concern is that the annual remembrance for fallen members for the armed services will fade away along with the group's aging membership.
And while the Stoneham-native realizes that he no longer has the energy required to assume the difficult task of organizing the event, he vowed that he'll traverse the town's cemeteries with an armload of American flags until the end.
"I'll stay a member of the committee as long as I can walk," the retired Chairman commented in a recent interview. "This year I probably put out a good 30-dozen flags. But it means a lot to people."
"I'd like to see more of the younger veterans get involved. But I realize that they're much younger and busier. We'll just do it as long as we can. But what happens then?" Mosley worried.
First joining the town-sponsored group after his discharge from the Navy in 1947, the former Disabled Veterans' Commander saw his participation as a way to connect with his father, a World War I veteran himself.
Back then, Mosley recalls, the ceremony surrounding the Memorial Day Parade preparations were performed with a military-style precision, and nobody took the activities more seriously than the former veterans of the Spanish-American War.
"When I got home in '47 from the Navy, I started helping him [my dad] out. And back in those days, we used to do everything. We even cut the grass ourselves, but now there's perpetual care where-ever you go," the Stoneham native recounted.
"I used to drive them around to the different squares in town and it was very military-like. You had to stand at attention, then climb the ladder or put the flags up, then stand at attention again and move on," Mosley added with a laugh.
According to Fred Kranefuss, who, along with Veteran's Road Race Director Natalie Webb, will take over the leadership void left by the six-decade committee veteran's departure, his five-year tenure on the Memorial Day Parade Committee was always made a little brighter by the 78-year-old Chairman.
Insisting that the Navy veteran knows sixty-percent of every soldier, seaman, marine, and pilot buried in the town's cemeteries, Mosley's successor thoroughly enjoyed the history lessons he regularly received over the years.
"Every time I went out there to put the flags out, I would get a history lesson," Kranefuss recalled with a laugh. "But seriously, he knows every veteran's story in there. And personally, I always enjoyed that; it was interesting to me."
Having little doubt that he and Webb will have some mighty big shoes to fill, Kranefuss doesn't plan on letting Mosley walk-away from the group anytime soon.
"We hope to keep him as our consultant forever," the Town Hall employee commented. "We'll just take away the heavy duty stuff he wants to give-up. He's my best friend on that committee, I'll tell you that. He was just the easiest guy to work with."
"I've just really enjoyed his companionship over the years. And if you asked me about somebody else next year, I really wouldn't say the same things. He's really exceptional," Kranefuss added.
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