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Memorial Day speaker dies
By Denise Dick
AUSTINTOWN
An already-somber occasion turned even more so in the township Monday.
After addressing attendees as part of a Memorial Day commemoration at Austintown Fitch High School. Gary Kommel collapsed and later died. Kommel was commander of the township’s American Legion Memorial Post 301.
“It was right by the flagpole there,” said Barry Garhammer, a post member who attended the service.
Kommel had just introduced Seth Welch, a Fitch student and a Boy Scout who made the veterans’ memorial at the school as his Eagle Scout service project.
“Seth was just starting to speak when Gary went down,” said Kenneth Jakubec, who, as a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, was the event’s keynote speaker.
As paramedics tended to Kommel, Jakubec, also a township school board member, also passed out.
While Jakubec suffered a cut to his head that left him with five stitches, Kommel, 68, died.
“I’ve known him for a couple of years,” Jakubec said. “He was such an active vet.”
Jakubec was able to deliver his keynote speech before going to the emergency room.
He believes it was trauma more than the heat that caused his spell.
“They were working on him right there in front of me,” Jakubec said. “I started to get nauseous.”
Although they hadn’t known each other long, Jakubec said Kommel was a good friend. “He was just a great guy,” he said.
With Jakubec representing the Tri-State Marines and Kommel representing both the Disabled American Veterans and the American Legion, the two men both attended veterans’ funerals to honor the dead.
“I recovered enough to give my speech,” Jakubec said. “People offered to give it for me, but I wanted to do it. We were there to honor veterans.”
Because of the heat, firefighters and other paramedics were at Monday’s event and tended to Kommel as soon as he fell, Jakubec said.
“He was a well-respected, fantastic man,” he said. “He was always soft-spoken.”
Both Jakubec and Garhammer said the Memorial Day tragedy is something that will stay with them.
“It’s one I’ll never forget,” Garhammer said.