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Gary Kass
Gary Kass has always had respect for veterans, but for the last five years, he’s developed a remarkable passion for sharing the stories of local veterans.
Kass, who spent five years in the Army National Guard and served 15 years in the Active Guard and Reserve, interviewed a large number of veterans and published the stories of at least two dozen of them.
“I didn’t do this for the glory,” he said. “I did it for the people.
No matter how little they think they did, their service was important.” Unfortunately, due to health issues, Kass is currently working on his last veteran story, which features Balaton native Jerry Schlenker. “I wish I could have interviewed more people and told their stories,” Kass said. “I could only reach out to the ones I had time and energy to do. Now, the energy is gone, so I have to quit.”
One of the biggest roadblocks for Kass has been the major deterioration in his vision, though ironically, that’s how he got started with the veteran stories. “I went through the Hines Blind Rehabilitation Center in Chicago, and they heard I had a curiosity about journalism,” Kass said. “They gave me a little Olympus recorder, and then a met a guy down there. His name was Harold Marley and he was 94 years old. He was in the 34th Division (of the National Guard) in World War II.”
When the National Guard Kass said he learned about the veteran’s death when he reached out to Marley’s daughter. “I sent her copies of the story and voice print from the interview,” he said. “She was overwhelmed. She said when she heard her dad’s voice again, she was just bawling. That was my venture into journalism, and I just kept doing it.”
While preserving the memories of veterans was the key purpose, Kass found a lot of personal satisfaction as well. “It was a big part of my life and it gave me a meaning,” he said. “It was a retirement project, for sure. But in the end, I was doing more of a service to these guys than I ever anticipated. People would walk up to them and say, ‘I didn’t know you did that.’ That was great because what I really wanted to do was to satisfy the families.”
The veteran stories were published in many local newspapers, including Balaton, Lake Wilson, Slayton and Westbrook, in addition to about a handful that were published in the Minnesota Legionnaire.
While two dozen of his veteran stories were published, Kass wishes he could have done even more. But not everyone wanted to share their stories publicly. “For the most part, I got two reactions. One is ‘I didn’t do anything.’ Then you find out they were in the combat zone in Korea. The other is ‘No, I won’t (do a story).’ You have to respect that, especially with Vietnam veterans.”
Kass sympathized with Vietnam veterans, who were treated poorly by individuals who opposed the war. “Some of them will talk to me, but they’re not going to let me publish anything on them,” Kass said. “There’s a personal boundary there. They were spit on and blamed for the war. We’ve never done that to a whole generation of people before, and we’d better not ever do it again.”
Kass is originally from Tracy, though he spent five years in Little Falls, 15 in St. Paul, 17 years on a farm south of Garvin and has lived in Balaton for the last six years. He and his wife, Elaine, have three children — Rachel, John and Rabakah — and 11 grandchildren.
Kass is a member of the Balaton Area Historical Society and was instrumental in starting a video history project in which elderly members of the area are interviewed. Those interviews are then cataloged and kept on a computer for any individuals to access at any time. “The Historical Society has well over 20 interviews now and we’re getting more,” said Kass, who acknowledged that there are several people who pitch in for the project. “The problem is that there’s no full-time staff. It’s just volunteers. But we’re not the only small museum around. It might take some time, but we’ll do more recordings.”
Along with Pastor Charles Anderson, Kass will be the keynote speaker at the 2023 Memorial Day program in Balaton. “We’ll be telling some stories — some funny, some poignant — and we’ll include the voice print on it,” Kass said. “We’re planning that for Memorial Day. That’s my last hurrah.”
