ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 5, 1996 TAG: 9601050055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on Jan.6
Correction
Carl Manfield is chairman of the fund-raising effort for the National
D-Day Memorial Foundation. He was incorrectly identified in a photo
caption Friday.
Richard Burrow, one of the chief planners behind Explore Park, will next set his sights on a proposed D-Day memorial in Bedford.
At a news conference Thursday, it was announced that Burrow has been selected from a pool of 12 applicants as full-time executive director of the Roanoke-based National D-Day Memorial Foundation.
"He was selected because we were very impressed with his knowledge of what we need to do," said foundation chairman and D-Day veteran Bob Slaughter of Roanoke. "He knows the engineering aspect of the project, and he's also worked with fund-raising and volunteers and all the kinds of things we're going to need."
As Explore Park's engineer, Burrow, 48, worked for almost a decade making the living-history park in Roanoke County a reality, only to be laid off during budget cuts after the park opened in 1994.
Before that, Burrow was Roanoke's chief project engineer, working on successes such as the revitalization of City Market, the creation of Center In The Square and the renewal of Elmwood Park.
Most recently, he has been executive director of Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway, a nonprofit group that advocates support for the scenic highway.
Burrow said he had already given advice to D-Day Foundation members who consulted him about management questions.
"The more I learned about the National D-Day Memorial Foundation and its plans, the more interested I became in it," he said. "My father was in the Second World War in the Pacific. He wasn't in the D-Day, but he participated in four smaller `D-Days' in Pacific island invasions, so this piqued my interest."
Also, Burrow said, "Over the years that I was involved with Explore Park, I fairly well covered all aspects of leadership that are needed to plan and put this memorial together and make it happen."
His first duty as executive director will be to review the project's proposed design and estimated cost.
The proposed granite arch would have a statue on top of it called "The Final Tribute" - a helmet perched atop a rifle stuck in the ground, like the temporary markers soldiers in Normandy left to mark the graves of the fallen.
It should cost about $5 million to $7 million to build, but Burrow said he wants to get a more specific figure. He also wants the foundation to consider other goals, such as a visitors' center or museum and educational outreach programs.
The memorial will be built on a hill overlooking Bedford Elementary School off U.S. 460.
Bedford lost more soldiers in the June 6, 1944, invasion of Normandy than any other American community its size.
Nineteen Bedford-area soldiers who served in Company A of the 29th Division's 116th Infantry regiment died storming the west side of Normandy's Omaha Beach on D-Day. Ninety-one of the 200-member Company A were killed in the assault.
So far, the foundation's board - its members include Bedford Mayor Mike Shelton and retired four-star General William B. Rosson of Salem - has raised about $200,000.
With the help of a part-time consultant, Burrow will also manage the foundation's fund-raising drive, which will probably begin this summer.
A promotional video that includes interviews with D-Day survivors and footage of schoolchildren singing and waving American flags at the memorial site will be completed this year to aid the fund-raising campaign.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL/Staff. Richard Burrow, left, worked onby CNBExplore Park; now he will tackle Bedford's D-Day memorial project.
Carl Manfield, chairman of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation,
is seated next to him. color.