News: Neillsville – Am. Legion Honors Glen Grady (May 2018)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

----Surnames: Grady, Schoenthal

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark, Co) 5/23/2018

American Legion’s Latest Honoree (Military Service - 2018)

Grady Becomes Legion’s Latest Honoree


Glen Grady is the latest veteran to be honored by the Neillsville American Legion Post 73.

Grady was born in Waukon, Iowa, and spent four years at country school in Allamakee County, Iowa, and four years of grade school at Waterville, Iowa. He also spent a year at St. Patrick’s High School in Waukon, Iowa, and graduated from Waukon High School in 1966.

After high school, he worked as a wheat harvester from Oklahoma to Canada for a Scott City, KS, contractor.

In the fall of 1966, Glen attended a semester at the University of Iowa. He joined the U. S. Army in March of 1967.

Basic training for Grady was at Fort Benning, GA, and advanced individual training in communications was at Fort Huachuca, AZ.

He served in Okinawa from August of 1967 to February of 1969, working in the company mail delivery and vehicle and equipment maintenance.

While in Okinawa, he spent a month of temporary duty in Thailand as part of a Southeast Asian Treaty Organization exercise. His 57th Artillery Battalion also served two months in 1968 in Korea, on a battalion exercise.

The 57th Battalion was decommissioned in the fall of 1968, and he spent the last months in Okinawa working at the Army Post Office.

Grady was sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, as a sergeant working as a radio teletype team chief. He worked on general communication equipment testing and maintenance.

Grady was discharged in March of 1970. After his discharge, he worked for a company in Decorah, Iowa, drilling wells and quarry-blasting.

From September of 1970 to 1974, Grady attended the University of Northern Iowa, earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

While in college, he worked as a lathe operator.

He then worked at auditing hospitals’ Medicare cost reports from 1974 to 1978.

From December of 1978 to September 1984, Grady was the chief financial officer at Memorial Medical Center in Neillsville.

Grady then worked as Memorial Medical Center’s chief executive officer from October of 1984 to April of 2008.

The honoree married Cheryl Schoenthal in 1971. Their children are Brandon, Blaine, Bryce and Brett; they have six grandchildren and another one expected in July.

Grady’s hobbies are reading, writing, hiking and WINX Club activities.