Ex-NSA Chief To Speak At Wilmette Memorial Day Ceremony

WILMETTE, IL — The retired U.S. Navy admiral who led the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command under former President Barack Obama is set to speak Monday at a Memorial Day ceremony in Wilmette.

The observance is part of the village's sesquicentennial, marking the 150th anniversary of its incorporation on Sept. 18, 1872. Village officials urged representatives of Wilmette's various civil society groups to take part in this year's march and ceremony honoring the 110 Wilmette residents who died serving their country during wartime. Their names will be read by Wilmette Scouts, and the Wilmette Police Department will provide a rifle salute.

Retired four-star Adm. Michael Rogers was born in Chicago and lived in Wilmette from the age of 7 until graduating from New Trier High School in 1977. Rogers has fond memories of playing along the edges of the North Shore Canal, looking for lost golf balls and sledding at the "notoriously dangerous" foot of Forest Avenue, according to a brief biography from former village president John Jacoby.

Rogers, 62, retired from the Navy in 2018 after almost 37 years of service, including duty with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. Indo Pacific Command and U.S. Atlantic Command, as well as commanding ships and fleets at various levels, according to his biography with Northwestern University's business school, where he is an adjunct professor and senior fellow.

The former NSA chief is set to speak at a ceremony following the conclusion of a unity march, which is scheduled to start at the parking lot of St. Joseph Church, 1747 Lake Ave., and head from there to Village Hall at 10:30 a.m.

The Wilmette Community Band is due to provide music as the marchers arrive and during the ceremony, while Wilmette vocalist Paul Reineck is set to perform the National Anthem.

Village President Senta Plunkett will host the event, and Nancy Fox, the mother of Marine Sgt. John Phillips, the most recent fallen Wilmette servicemember, will lay a memorial wreath. Phillips was one of 307 people who died in the October 1983 suicide bombing of military barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.

Most local, state and federal offices in Wilmette the rest of Illinois will be closed for the in observance of the holiday, and various local businesses will be open with modified hours.

Memorial Day parades are also planned for downtown Chicago — where the route begins with a ceremony to lay a wreath at the Daley Center, 50 W. Washington St., before heading south on State Street from Lake Street — and in Park Ridge, where the parade begins at Talcott Road and Cumberland Avenue and ends at Hodges Park, 5050 Butler Place.

In Wilmette, services such as mail delivery and pickup and garbage pickup will be delayed for Memorial Day, with yard waste and recycling collection set to take place one day later than usual for the rest of the week.

The day after Memorial Day, the group Kids Create Change is holding a community lantern floating ceremony that aims to provide people an opportunity to come together to honor the losses that have resulted from the coronavirus pandemic, including loved ones, homes, jobs, relationships, celebrations and more through the collective act of releasing floating lanterns into the Arrington Lagoon on Evanston's lakefront. The event is sponsored by Evanston ASPA and scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Here is a list of places that will be closed Monday:

• Post offices
• Libraries
• Banks
• State courts
• State government offices
• County government offices
• Local government offices

The following businesses may be open with adjusted hours so be sure to call ahead:

• Supermarkets
• Liquor stores
• Retail stores
• Museums
• Restaurants and bars
• Outdoor activities
• Beaches and parks