By J.D. O’Gara

Dale Kurtz is leaving the Franklin Veterans Services office, but his experience there will never leave him.

“I was very fortunate and very successful in my corporate careers, but this is the best job I’ve ever had,” says Kurtz, who will retire at the same time as his wife, a nurse. The pair plan to embark on what Kurtz refers to as their “Blaze of Glory” tour of the country.

Kurtz, who has lived in Franklin since the 1980s, found himself bored after retirement in 2010, so, at his wife’s suggestion, he contacted the town’s then VSO, Bob Fahey. 

“I just did volunteer stuff for him, a lot of computer work, a lot of research,” says Kurtz. Through Fahey, Kurtz learned and took advantage of the opportunity to become Veterans Services Officer for Norfolk County, during which the Norfolk County Veterans Court was created.

“A veteran who has created an offense can go into this program, where we help treat their drug or alcohol abuse , the PTSD, those things that cause them to break the law,” says Kurtz, who was proud to be involved. “It’s been very successful and has done very well to help a number of veterans overcome addiction and be productive members of society.”

His county-level position led the town of Avon to seek Kurtz out as their VSO, which he accepted, and a year later, when Fahey retired, “I became VSO for Franklin as well as Avon, which I’ve been doing since May of 2015,” says Kurtz, an active alum of West Point who enlisted in 1968.

“I was fortunate I was selected to attend a special school in Fort Belvoir, VA, and from that school I was selected for admission to West Point,” says Kurtz, who served five more years after graduating in 1973 before heading to graduate school. Kurtz is president of the New England West Point Alumni and is the Admissions Coordinator for the 4th Congressional District for West Point. He often attends Army football games. 

Kurtz says he’s proud of many things the Veterans Service Office has done while he’s held the post, noting, “We created a chair of honor, and I would send it out to the schools and talk to students about what it means to be a vet and the sacrifices the vet and their family make to help protect us; we became partners in the Vietnam commemorative program, which ran during the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam war; we participated in a number of ceremonies and presentations, including presenting the Ambassador for Peace medals to maybe six different Korean War veterans; we created a veterans council to meet once a month, on the third Thursday; we became a Purple Heart Community; we have a monthly Veterans Coffee Social that Debra Martin and John Hefeley run (with free coffee and pastry from the local Starbucks), and what I call my legacy event has been the Memorial Walkway, which started two months after I became VSO. It’s just a great thing to have, a living memorial that adds to the beauty of the town common, and the VFW and American Legion were leaders in helping to get that done.”

More recently, the Franklin Veterans Services office received a SHRAB grant it needs to match to fix a number of war memorials in town, something Kurtz says his successor will need to take over, as well as began the “Tune It Out” guitar program for vets. 

Overall, however, Kurtz feels his most important accomplishment has been supporting veterans and their widows. 

“When you get a phone call from someone who’s been dealing with an issue since they left the service, when they call and say they just got a letter from their disability claim and thank you, those are the things that make a difference, and that’s why this has been such a great job,” says Kurtz, who has high hopes for his successor. “Whomever they have is going to be great. They’re going to take where we are and continue to move forward with fresh ideas and get things done. I look forward to having someone do the job even better.”