FAMILY AND friends of the late Bill Forbes were on hand to dedicate “Bill Forbes Way” on Saturday. Picture from left to right (back row) Rachel Hagen, Lisa McLellan, Billy Forbes, Scott Forbes, Mary Forbes, Jackson Forbes and Colyn Belter. Kneeling: Abygail Forbes and Jaycee Hollenbaugh. (Photo by Raj Das, edphotos.com)
By JENNIFER GENTILE
MELROSE — The late William “Bill” H. Forbes, devoted Melrose politician, family man and local advocate of veteran causes, was honored on Saturday, March 26 with a dedication of the new “Bill Forbes Way,” a pathway behind the Vietnam Memorial on Main Street in Melrose, newly named in honor of the Army veteran.
The ceremony was hosted by the Melrose Veterans Advisory Board and the Melrose Veterans Services Department and attended by scores of Melrose dignitaries and residents on Saturday morning at a sunlit Ell Pond.
Mr. Forbes is survived by wife Mary, and children William, Scott, Julie and Joel. Joining Mary at the dedication were her two sons, Scott and William and grandchildren Abygail, Jackson, Will, Carter, Cyan, Camden and Jaycee.
Bill Forbes proudly served the City of Melrose for five terms as a Ward 7 alderman and as the board’s president in his final year. He was a dedicated member of St. Mary’s of the Annunciation Parish, the Melrose Veterans Advisory Board, the Melrose Veterans Memory Project, and served as President Emeritus of the Disabled & Limbless Veterans Organization. He died on September 24, 2016, at age 68.
Local dignitaries included Melrose Mayor Paul Brodeur, former Mayors Rob Dolan and Gail Infurna, current City Councilors Chris Cinella, Mark Garipay, Shawn McMaster, Ryan Williams, School Committee member Ed O’Connell, and former council members Frank Wright, John Tramatozzi, Monica Medeiros and Peter Mortimer. Also joining the ceremony was state Representative Kate Lipper-Garabedian, state Senator Jason Lewis and Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan.
Speakers included Pastor Terron Tuckett of the First Baptist Church; Jim Keane, a Vietnam Veteran and member of the Veterans Advisory Board; Jim Muschett, a Vietnam veteran, Purple Heart recipient and member of the Veterans Advisory Board, and Forbes’ son, Scott, a former alderman and now director at the Veteran’s Northeast Outreach Center in Haverhill. Serving as master of ceremonies was Colonel Robert Driscoll, chair of the Melrose Veterans Advisory Board.
The location of Bill Forbes Way was apt given Forbes’ connection to the armed services, particularly Vietnam. Upon his graduation from Everett High School in 1965, Bill Forbes enlisted in the United States Army serving as an SP/5 with the 507th Transportation Group in Nha Trang, Vietnam. He was honorably discharged in 1969.
Bill’s son Scott Forbes offered a touching tribute to his dad who was also a coach, umpire, and Eucharistic minister, who above all loved Melrose. Scott included a memory of a (then) teen Bill Forbes’ with childhood friend Peter Dolan. Together the two: “Would leave their homes in Everett, skate on First Pond up at Mt Hood and vow they would someday live in Melrose.” Both did. Bill Forbes made his home on Mystic Ave in Melrose in 1979 and was quickly active in local youth sports as a coach, referee, umpire, and mentor. Mayor Paul Brodeur also spoke, noting the wide net Forbes cast, referring to him as a “strong working man who treated everyone like family.”
It was a moving ceremony that featured musical accompaniment of MHS senior Elena Simard, who sang the National Anthem and a stirring rendition of “How Great Thou Art” before the laying of the wreath from Mary Forbes.
At the close of the ceremony Scott Forbes concluded: “My dad would always ask us ‘What will you be remembered by when you are gone?’ If we didn’t have an answer that meant we weren’t living our best lives. He’d follow with, ‘What have your done for your community? Have you spread kindness to your neighbors?’ “
That indelible spirit has been passed down and was evident in the gathering at Ell Pond.
As those gathered then honored Melrose’s lost Vietnam veterans with a presentation of flowers, his son Scott aptly noted, “My Dad didn’t return from Vietnam a hero. But he vowed here in Melrose to use his voice for those who could not speak for themselves.”
And on March 26, without a doubt, William Forbes returned home a hero.
