Guest speaker Vernon Benjamin
Saugerties American Legion Post 72 will conduct a Memorial Day service on the traditional day, Friday, May 30, on the Post grounds beginning at 6 p.m. The Saugerties Community Band will play several selections before and during the service, including a band salute to the Armed Forces.. Following the ceremony, refreshments will be served in the Banquet Hall and the Military Museum will be open for guided tours. Saugerties native Vernon Benjamin will be the guest speaker. He has been at various times a writer, journalist, researcher, administrator, public official, consultant and community and environmental advocate. He was an aide to Assemblyman Maurice D. Hinchey from 1982-92 and served as Saugerties Town Supervisor, three-term Ulster County Legislator and member of the 2011-12 Ulster County Reapportionment Commission. Benjamin is an adjunct lecturer on the history and culture of the Hudson River Valley at Marist College. He has been a travel writer for Car & Travel magazine, occasional freelance writer and local columnist whose political writings initiated reforms within his town Democratic Party. His book, “The History of the Hudson River Valley: From Wilderness to the Civil War,” will be published by Overlook Press this month, available at The Inquiring Mind bookstore at the corner of Main and Partition streets on Saturday, May 31, at 7 p.m.