From Dream to Reality
Bud Erickson and Duane Broughton at the site of the future Memorial.
Honoring Stoughton’s Veterans
In the summer of 2014 American Legion Post 59 members Bud Erickson and Duane Broughton sat at a corner table at the American Legion to talk about their desire to honor veterans with a monument.
It was an idea talked about over the years but it was finally time to do something. The Stoughton Veterans Memorial Park became a cooperative project between
Stoughton’s American Legion Post 59 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 328. Together, these organizations formed an 11-member steering committee including veterans and community members.
This team of volunteers directed the project from start to finish. Five years later, the Veterans Memorial was completed and opened to the public.
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It’s a project that has been more than 150 years in the making ...
Since the days when the “Stoughton Rifles” were mustered into the Civil War, area veterans have fought, bled and died to help preserve American freedoms. ”
Steering Committee Members
The Driving Force Behind the Memorial
Duane Broughton
General ChairmanDave Stolen
ConstructionSonny Swangstu
ConstructionVic Duesel
ConstructionRoger Nitzsche
FundraisingRandy Robertson
Fundraising
Dennis Derke
FundraisingRoger Kleven
Name CollectingBasil Sadler
Name CollectingJim Oler
FinanceBud Erickson
Publicity
The Stoughton Veterans Memorial was a joint project of American Legion Post 59 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 328
The committee visited veterans memorials in Wisconsin and neighboring states to determine design objectives. After careful evaluation, the committee selected Pechmann Memorials as the artisan and builder of Stoughton’s Memorial.
With feedback from veterans and the community, the design for the Stoughton Veterans Memorial was continuously developed and refined. Finally the building of the monument began, along with fundraising for a proposed $1 million.
Architectural rendering of the Stoughton Veterans Memorial.