Local government and veterans advocate Dennis Rindone dies

Dennis Rindone, well-known in local government circles for many years, passed away on March 1 at his home in Erving at age 63.

Rindone, the town administrator in Princeton for the past decade, had also served as a selectman for nine years in his hometown and had worked with local officials as a regional manager with the state’s Division of Local Services. He had he also served on the School and Finance committees, the Personnel Board, and the Water Commission in Erving.

In addition to his involvement in local government, in recent years Rindone had spent countless hours on a labor of love: an effort to document every bridge, park, square, statue and monument dedicated to U.S. military veterans throughout Massachusetts. Rindone located, photographed and catalogued monuments in each of the state’s 351 cities and towns, covering everything from the American Revolution to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2004, he launched a Web site about his project (www.honorrollofliberty.com), which he called “Honoring Massachusetts Veterans: We Care – We Remember.” [See Beacon articles about the project below.]

A Vietnam War veteran whose father and several uncles served in World War II, Rindone had hoped to publish a 700-page coffee table book of the monuments he catalogued.

“For nine years, and over 125,000 miles, I have traced the chronicle of America’s most demanding moments from colonial times through the millennium’s change,” he wrote on his Web site. “This undertaking, although it is personal, records and even uncovers the reverent works of the thousands of others, those devoted to keeping our community’s sacrifices and patriotism never far from our eyes, permanent and solid to our touch, and always within our closest memories.”

In an interview published in today’s Greenfield Recorder, Sen. Stephen Brewer said of Rindone, “Dennis really made it happen, from the little things to the big things. … I’m heartsick about this. He was a great man. He was very talented and very capable.”

Brewer praised Rindone’s work with the Route 2 Task Force, where he helped leverage $40 million in safety improvements to Route 2.

William Bembury, who served with Rindone as a selectman in Erving, told the Recorder, “He was extremely devoted to his work. He was just tireless. He never stopped.”

Bembury said Rindone also “spent a great deal of time going to VFWs and showing slides and giving a talk about the memorials.”

Rindone was born in Winchendon, grew up in Athol, and was a veteran of the Navy, serving in Washington, D.C., and Guam. Before working in government, he’d spent 10 years working as an actor in New York City.

Story from The Beacon, May 2005

Web site is devoted to local war memorials
After nine years of research and visits to all 351 Massachusetts cities and towns, Princeton Town Administrator Dennis Rindone has launched “Honor Roll of Liberty,” a Web site featuring veterans memorials from throughout the state.

The site, www.honorrollofliberty.com, has pages devoted to war memorials in several dozen communities, with text accompanying the photographs.

Memorials include a statue in Sharon of the only uniformed female veteran of the Revolutionary War; a World War I monument in Orange of a soldier speaking with a young boy above a plaque that reads “It Shall Not Be Again”; and a four-sided polished black granite monument in Bellingham that honors veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War.

There are also photographs of monuments relocated from the “lost towns” of the Quabbin Valley – Dana, Enfield, Greenwich and Prescott.

In introductory comments on the Web site, Rindone describes his project as “a map to a new Freedom Trail – the paths to a statewide legacy shaped in our cities and towns and neighborhoods.”

Rindone, a Vietnam War veteran whose father and several uncles served in World War II, hopes to publish a 700-page coffee table book that will include monuments he has catalogued from each of the state’s communities.

Story from The Beacon, May 2001

Help sought for ground-breaking statewide veterans project
“Honoring Massachusetts Veterans: We Care We Remember” is an effort by Dennis Rindone, Princeton town administrator and a Vietnam War veteran, to remember veterans by tracking down and documenting every memorial honoring veterans in the state.

Rindone intends to produce a complete catalog of all memorials to veterans in Massachusetts and a book of photographs of many of the state’s finest monuments. He says he knows of no other such project in this state or any other.

“Part of this project is to raise consciousness about these memorials and to remember them and the veterans,” Rindone says.

The importance of remembering veterans for the tremendous sacrifices they made is critical to Rindone, particularly since most veterans were just youths when they served.

The scope of the project requires locating and documenting every bridge, park, square, statue and monument to veterans in Massachusetts. Rindone also photographs the monuments for the book. The book will include at least one monument from each community in Massachusetts.

“Monuments were more important years ago in terms of making a statement,” Rindone explains. “Now there is more of a functional memorial, such as a naming of a park or a civic center for veterans.”

Rindone began this project nearly four years ago when his work with the Department of Revenue’s Division of Local Services involved visiting communities all over the state. The monuments and honor rolls in the cities and towns he visited captured his interest. Soon he began setting off for distant communities before dawn in order to photograph and document monuments before a day of work or meetings got under way.

Rindone estimates he has photographed and documented monuments and memorials in about 250 of the state’s 351 municipalities. He has even tracked down the honor rolls from the four towns flooded to create the Quabbin Reservoir, now located in New Salem.

“World War I monuments are the most expensive, if you were to build them today – the most patriotic and the most artistic,” says Rindone.

He has located a number of unique monuments throughout the state, including the only monument in the North that pays respect to Confederate soldiers, located on Martha’s Vineyard, an elaborate monument to veterans of the Spanish-American War in Gloucester, an Agent Orange monument in Weymouth, and a monument dedicated to women veterans in Haverhill.

Memorials can be difficult to find because they are often housed in city or town halls or situated in cemeteries where they are less obvious to a person unfamiliar with the community, Rindone says.

The task of documenting all memorials is especially challenging in larger communities such as Cambridge and Quincy, which both have well over 100. Lowell has more than 300 memorials, including 275 squares dedicated to veterans killed in action.

The project is now at a point where Rindone says he needs help to complete it. He is asking local officials and veterans’ agents to contact him with information about the monuments in their community, including details such as the type of memorial, site, address, and which veterans the memorial honors.