Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the U.S. into World War Two, community leaders in Baraboo began looking for ways to honor area residents who were serving in one of the armed services. Under the leadership of William Ott and the Baraboo Kiwanis Club, an honor roll was first proposed for Baraboo in the spring of 1943. The idea quickly caught on and the Baraboo city council took over the project and created a committee to address the crucial questions: What would the honor roll look like? How big would it be? Where would it go? Who would build it? What would it cost? Whose names would be on it?

Fortunately, there was neither a shortage of brainpower nor manpower to get the ball rolling. One of the most important individuals to lead the effort was Paul Stewart, a World War One veteran, successful businessman, city employee and civic leader. As much as anyone, Stewart brought organization, experience, and a can-do enthusiasm to the job. As the Baraboo city clerk, Stewart was in a key position to understand the numbers and also know exactly which contractors needed to be brought into the project.

Everybody in Baraboo, it seems, pitched in. Churches and fraternal organizations like the Elks and Masons held raffles. A group of local women who called themselves the Southside Sunshine Circle put on several coffees and bake sales. The Ringling Brothers Circus and Deppe Lumber provided building materials while veterans organizations like the DAV and the VFW found volunteers to do the actual labor.

Another key player in the development of the Baraboo honor roll was the city’s main newspaper, The Baraboo News-Republic. Under the management of editor Curt Page and his son, Harlan Page IV, the newspaper brought legitimacy to the project and kept residents informed about how things were progressing.

In so many ways, the building of the honor roll gave people the opportunity to be part of something bigger. At a time of frayed nerves – not to mention that the U.S. was still in the throes of the Great Depression – the building of the honor roll brought the community of Baraboo together in a powerful way. Parents of servicemen in the South Pacific felt a powerful kinship to the parents of servicemen stationed in England. And so it went. Pride. Teamwork. We’re all in this fight together!

As city leaders brought the project forward, it was vital to make sure that no names were omitted and that all names were spelled correctly. In September of 1943, the Baraboo newspaper created the first list of names and got the Corner Drug Store – then located on 3rd & Oak Street – to place it in their main room. Residents who had family members in one of the services were asked to come downtown and make any needed corrections.

Construction of the Baraboo honor roll took place during the months of October and November in 1943 and by December the entire project was completed. Because so many of the names were recent graduates of Baraboo High School, it seemed only fitting that it be placed on the north lawn of the high school – today, the Baraboo Civic Center. It was also decided to include the names of Baraboo residents who had served in World War One.

As the day of dedication drew near, an obituary appeared in the Baraboo newspaper that put the honor roll project in crystal clear perspective—“Memorial Honors George Sprecher, Killed In Action” it read. Two weeks after graduating Baraboo High School in June of 1941 Sprecher had volunteered for the Army Air Corps and after 15 months of training found himself on a troopship bound for Liverpool. Sprecher was among the 35,000 American GIs who took part in Operation Torch in November of 1942 to liberate North Africa from Nazi Germany and establish an Allied strongpoint along the Mediterranean. In July of 1943 Sprecher’s unit was part of General Patton’s 7th Army that led the way in the invasion of Sicily. He was killed in late October while on a secret mission over French Morocco. His untimely death galvanized the city of Baraboo like nothing before or since.

On the day that it was dedicated, December 12, 1943, city attorney Robert Gollmar urged the residents of Baraboo to draw strength from the Honor Roll and to repledge themselves to core American ideals. At the time that it was dedicated, there were 893 names of those who had served, or were then serving, the country in World War Two and another 477 names of those who had served in World War One. Another 250 names would be added before the war finally concluded in Sept. of 1945.

By the mid-1970s, the Honor Roll began to look a bit weathered and tired. In 1978 a committee of veterans and civic leaders came together to make repairs and renovations to the Honor Roll. Following the wars in Korea and Vietnam, the Honor Roll was expanded in 1986 with the inclusion of two wings.

By the early 2020s the Baraboo Honor Roll was again in need of repairs. As before, a group of military veterans & city leaders wrestled with which problems needed the most attention, who would be doing the repairs, and where the money would come from. Additionally, the group used the opportunity to step back and reconsider the basic purposes of the Honor Roll and in doing so came to embrace new ideas and new objectives –

• We wanted to honor ALL veterans everywhere.
• We wanted to specifically remember the names of Baraboo residents who had been killed in World Wars One and Two.
• We wanted to place benches in the immediate vicinity that would encourage people to reflect on some of the virtues that veterans hold dear.
• We wanted to give people the opportunity to purchase paver bricks at the base of the memorial so they could honor family members and in this way make it more engaging to the community.