WILLOW CREEK — The Gazette received word this week that Private First Class Leonard Dumont, 22, of Willow Creek, was killed in action in the Korean theater on October 27. He is the first Willow Creek serviceman to die in the conflict.
Pfc. Dumont was the son of Albert and Marie Dumont of Pond Road. He was employed at the Willow Creek Hardwood Flooring Company before his enlistment in March of this year, working on the green chain — the same position held by Ezra Homan when he started at the mill in 1906.
“He was a quiet boy, but he had a good heart,” said Harold Peller, Dumont’s foreman at the mill. “He never complained about the work, and he never spoke badly of anyone. That’s the kind of man the Army got.”
Dumont completed basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and was deployed to Korea in July. He was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division. Details of the action in which he was killed have not been released by the Department of Defense.
The Dumont family received the telegram on November 2. Albert Dumont, a sawyer at the mill, was informed by the mill manager during the lunch break. He finished his shift before going home.
“There was nothing to be done by leaving early,” Albert Dumont told the Gazette. “The news was already delivered.”
A memorial service will be held at the Congregational Church on Saturday, November 17, at 2:00 PM. The Dumont family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Willow Creek Volunteer Fire Department, of which Leonard was a member.
The Gazette prints the names of all Willow Creek residents serving in the armed forces on page one of every edition. Pfc. Dumont’s name will remain on that list, marked with a star. The Dumont family would later sell their home to Dean Moreau’s parents in the 1970s — a Gold Star banner still visible in the attic.