Events

Torrance Historical Society’s Memorial Day Service – Reading of Names on the Wall

On Memorial Day, Monday, May 27th, at 2:00 PM, the Torrance Historical Society will conduct a memorial service for Torrance service personnel who gave their lives in U. S. military actions.  The program will take place on the Memorial Plaza at the corner of Torrance Blvd. and Maple Ave., and will include the reading of the 146 Names on the Wall plus the five “new” names recently added.  Those Names include war losses from World War I to those in the Iraq and Afghanistan War.

With the help of a handful of volunteers, the Torrance Historical Society is continuing to gather and preserve the too-short life story of each of the Torrance military war causalities. To date, the organization is halfway to their goal of putting a face on each name. This project was initiated by former Board Member and WWII Veteran, Jerry Ronan. Since Jerry’s passing, two dedicated volunteers, Kurt Weideman and Dennis Piotrowski, have taken over the project.

Based on many months of research by Kurt and Dennis for the Names on the Wall Project, five additional Torrance heroes were identified whose names were not on the Veterans Memorial Wall.  With the City’s approval, on September 15, 2023, the five names were added and nine misspellings were corrected, now brining the total Names on the Wall to 151.

The five “new” Torrance names added to the Wall are: Thomas Walter Beecham, Russell Willis Browning, Kristi Palica, James Doran Sanders, and John Robert Wolverton.

On Memorial Day, we will be grateful for the gift of those who never came home. We will remember — every day is Memorial Day.

The Memorial Service is free, and open to the public.