MANSFIELD — Doug Theaker is an advocate for the United States and its military veterans, make no mistake about it.
The president of the Richland County Veterans Service Commission delivered animated remarks to commemorate Veterans Day on Monday afternoon during the dedication of the $270,000 Veterans Honor Wall at the Mansfield Cemetery.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t care what you read or what you see. America is the greatest country in the whole world,” he said.
“In the final words of Douglas McArthur, general in World War II, … duty, honor, country.
“Those are the words of the veterans, not only of Richland County, but throughout America … duty, honor, country,” Theaker said.
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“Once again, here we are gathered together in this hallowed ground and we look to the heavens and we say, ‘God have mercy on all of these people. Have mercy on all of these people whose day will be called when they will be removed from these grounds,'” he said.
“We are here today to dedicate these columbarium for the veterans of Richland County.
“The one thing that my colleagues get tired of hearing me say, but I’m going to say it one more time. The Richland County Veterans Service Commission exists because we serve those veterans of Richland County,” Theaker said.
“And this is just one classic example of that,” the U.S. Navy veteran from the Korean War said.
(Photos from the dedication on Monday afternoon of the new Veterans Honor Wall at the Mansfield Cemetery. The story continues below the photos.)
After the dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony, World War II U.S. Navy sailor Robert Mack, who died in 2001 at the age of 77, became the first veteran to have his cremains placed in the new wall.
The cremains of his wife, Sarah, were be placed with him during the event marking the official opening of a project aimed at providing local military veterans with a new internment option.
The Veterans Honor Wall was funded by the Richland County Veterans Service Commission, working with Pam Bautz, administrator of the Mansfield Cemetery Association.
Ground was broken for the wall in August on the city’s southeast side.
The need for the planned columbarium walls — spaces designed especially for cremation urns — is growing across the country.
The National Funeral Directors Association in 2023 projected that 60.5 percent of Americans would choose cremation over traditional burial, a number the organization projected will rise to 80 percent by 2035.
Ken Estep, executive director of the local veterans commission, said in July local veterans officials began to notice the shift in cremation over traditional burials during a visit to the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in Rittman.
“They just almost expanded … everything they’re doing is on the columbariums,” he said. “When I started to look at that, I thought, ‘We need to think about what we could do to make it so our (veterans) in Richland County can stay in Richland County, if they so desire.”
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Estep and others on the commission credited Bautz for her work on the project.
Bautz, who has worked on it for a few years, said during the August ceremony she was excited to see the project, which has been in the works for a few years, finally underway.
“I think (we) started talking about this with the veterans commission five or six years ago after I first got here and started looking at the future of the cemetery,” Bautz said.
Bautz said the project will expand the life of the Honor Grounds cemetery land owned by the local veterans commission. It will also provide a centralized ceremonial area at the Honor Grounds.
Purdy Construction handled the construction of the site and setting of the columbarium units, which were purchased from the Turner Vault Co. of Toledo.
Under traditional burial space, there would be room for 104 to 108 more traditional graves in the Honor Grounds, Bautz said previously.
“We could bury between 1,536 to 3,072 people,” with room for two urns per niche for those who wish to be interred with their spouse, Bautz said.
“I don’t have any other land that I can work with the veterans on. I kind of just thought that this would be the smartest use of the land that (veterans) have and to still save plenty of land for ground burials through the years to come,” she said this past summer.
The “wall” would span the width of the Honors Grounds, approximately 160 feet. She said it will be created by placing cremation units together with a handicapped-approved concrete walkway between each set and also on both sides of the wall.
