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Medfield Boy Scout Tyler Hatch completed his Eagle Service Project by dedicating a memorial bench at the Kingsbury Grist Mill.
Hatch first touched base with Grist Mill Committee member Dick Judge last summer. It was decided by the committee to include a granite memorial bench, which would serve as a final resting place for Richard Werner and Douglas MacKeachie, two Medfield Residents who went missing in action during World War II.
The bench was purchased using donations from the Grist Mill Committee and Cub Scout Pack 200 in Medfield. The project started in the fall when Tyler cleared the area out which the help of other scouts Troop 89. The scouts were back at it in the spring, laying wood chips donated by Robert LaPlante of LaPlante’s Landscaping. The scouts then placed the legs for the bench, which set the stage for the dedication ceremony on Saturday.
The procession to the Grist Mill started at St. Edwards and included members of Troop 89 and Medfield High School’s Jazz Ensemble. It also included Robert LaPlante’s 1925 pick up truck escorting the top of the bench, which had two American Flags draped over the top of it. The procession concluded at the Grist Mill, where the bench was taken off the truck by the scouts and placed on top of the legs. The Boy Scouts then folded the flags and handed them to Richard Werner’s brother and Ron Griffin, from the Veteran’s Committee, representing Doug MacKeachie’s family.
The ceremony was attended by over 100 people, including more than 20 members of the Werner family spanning four generations. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the procession went back to St. Edwards’s Church.
Hatch publicly thanked those who made the project possible: Dick Judge and George Dealy from the Grist Mill Committee, who had the vision for the project and organized the details around the ceremony, Robert LaPlante of LaPlante’s Landscaping, who donated the woodchips and offered his expertise, assistance, and various supplies throughout the project, Medfield Cub Scout Pack 200, which contributed to the cost of the bench, Swenson Granite Works, which helped subsidize the cost of the bench, Richard DeSorgher and the Historical Society, who researched the story of Richard Werner and Douglas MacKeachie, and all the family and friends who attended the ceremony.
