LENOX — A proposed Berkshire Gold Star Family Memorial to be installed outside Town Hall has won enthusiastic support from the Select Board.
Gold Star families include members of the military who died in service to the U.S., beginning with World War I. Since then, there have been 600 Berkshire County Gold Star families who lost a loved one.
Former state Rep, William “Smitty” Pignatelli has been leading the fundraising effort for the public memorial, working with the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires.
He described it as “a very nice veterans’ park at the Town Hall to bookend our veterans’ flagpole on the other side as well. At this location, nothing will block it,” he said. “No matter what direction you’re going, you’ll see this, a real recognition of the families that have made a sacrifice.”
The design plan for the proposed Gold Star Family Memorial installation proposed for the lawn area just to the right of the Lenox Town Hall main entrance.
About a year ago, the Berkshire Gold Star Family Memorial Committee began organizing. It started raising funds privately last December toward the $170,000 budget, with $140,000 now in the bank. The remainder is to be raised during the current public fundraising effort.
There’s only one Massachusetts Gold Star Memorial, in Fall River. “I was shocked, and that’s what prompted me to say we need to do this in the Berkshires,” said Pignatelli, who’s named for his father’s best friend, William H. Smith, who died in combat during World War II at age 19.
“I felt Lenox would be the perfect spot,” he said, pointing out the lawn area just to the right of Town Hall’s main entrance. Pignatelli said former Town Manager Christopher Ketchen and DPW Superintendent William Gop offered informal support for the memorial project.
The preliminary design calls for a slab nearly 14 feet long on a 3 1/2-foot base, elevated to about 7 feet in height, Pignatelli told the Select Board at its televised meeting on March 5, available on demand at ctsbtv.org. “It’s not big or gaudy,” he stressed. There will be recessed illumination at night.
William “Smitty” Pignatelli is working on memorial honoring 600 Berkshire Gold Star families who lost combatants in conflicts dating back to World War I. The project’s committee has raised $140,000, already in the bank, toward the $170,000 goal to fund the memorial outside Lenox Town Hall.
On Tuesday outside Town Hall, Pignatelli showed The Eagle an illustration of the proposed black marble memorial with wording engraved into the stone itself with gold lettering, a Gold Star seal and a county map laser-engraved into the stone delineating all 32 communities.
The wording states: “A tribute to those who sacrificed a loved one for our freedom.”
Pignatelli said he hopes preliminary site work can be finished before the Tanglewood season, with the installation completed with a public unveiling this fall.
“Lenox and the Berkshires have done a great job historically recognizing our fallen soldiers,” he told Select Board members. “It’s going to be a beautiful tribute to them, an attraction for Lenox and a continuation of the good work the town has done recognizing those sacrifices throughout the county.”
Longtime resident Robert Coakley, a committee member, lost his brother, Lt. Cmdr. William F. Coakley, during the Vietnam War. Coakley, a Navy pilot and veteran of 37 combat missions, was 33 when his plane went down during his final mission in September 1966.
He was listed as missing in action for 23 years until his remains were discovered and returned to Lenox. He was the town’s only resident who died in combat during the Vietnam conflict.
Robert Coakley also lost his grandson, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Roger W. Muchnick Jr., when a mortar shell exploded during a 2013 training exercise in Nevada during the Afghanistan war.
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“We appreciate your vote,” Coakley told the Select Board. “It means a lot to our family and it will potentially mean a lot to our children, grandchildren and our great-grandchildren, which we have, so we’re thrilled with it.”
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Besides Pignatelli and Robert Coakley, the committee includes:
• Richard Fuore, whose uncle served in World War II and later died in combat during the Korean War;
• Alan North, a Vietnam veteran who died recently having lost two uncles in World War II;
• Marie Field, a retired brigadier general who was the first woman to achieve the rank of general in the Massachusetts Air National Guard.
“There’s no question about the merits of the project, it’s very fitting, a great location,” said Select Board Chairman Neal Maxymillian.
“I’m 100 percent behind this project,” said Selectman Ed Lane, a member of a Gold Star family. “We’ll help move that forward as much as we can.”
