WESTFIELD – Husband. Father of nine. World War II veteran. Winner of five bronze battle stars and a Purple Heart. Postmaster. City Councilman. Professional baseball pitcher.
USPS Connecticut Valley District Manager David Mastroianni, Jr., presents the plaque which will be displayed in the Post Office building to Trant’s wife, Mary. (Photo by Robby Veronesi)
Sunday marked a more permanent reminder of a citizen who left a great mark on Westfield. From now on, the Westfield Post Office located at West Silver Street will be the William T. Trant Post Office Building.
U.S. Congressman Richard Neal, a friend of Trant’s, speaks at the dedication of the William T. Trant Post Office Building Sunday morning. Trant was involved in supporting the candidacies of many notable politicians, including Neal. (Photo by Robby Veronesi)
“My dad took very seriously his role as an involved citizen in Westfield,” said Trant’s son, Timothy, in his remarks during the dedication ceremony. “His guidance to us as we grew up was always about giving back and service.”
Twelve years after Trant passed away in his Winter Haven, Fla., home in 2002, a crowd gathered in the Post Office Building parking lot to honor, remember and commemorate the life of a man who went from a part-time clerk to postmaster during his 33-year full-time career.
As much as Trant loved his civic service duty, he was as equally, and humbly, proud of his military service. After enlisting in July 1943, Trant and Company A of the 87th Chemical Mortar Battalion was wounded on Utah Beach near Normandy, France, on D-Day.
The Westfield High School band, led by Patrick Kennedy, performed the National Anthem and James Curnow’s Amber Waves of Grain Sunday morning. (Photo by Robby Veronesi)
Trant recovered and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, one of the worst battles in American history, on the Belgian-German border. In both instances, Trant was wounded, with a bullet from a German machine gun staying in his arm for the rest of his life.
At age 20, Corporal Trant experienced the horror and the aftermath of a Nazi concentration camp, when he participated in the liberation of Nordhausen, Germany, in 1945.
Moved by what he saw, he inscribed “4/13/45 Never Let Them Forget” on an official map, which he kept along with photographs of the atrocities — reminders of caring for everyone and serving all people – a sign of what was to come to Westfield.
“Everybody should recognize just how grim those days were,” said keynote speaker, Congressman Richard Neal. “As he inscribed ‘Never Let Them Forget,’ the people of Westfield are saying, ‘Never Let Us Forget.’”
It is a bit fitting to have such an important community building be dedicated to a citizen who had such a strong desire to serve the community he lived in. Whether in the form of serving at his local church, coaching youth baseball or a 14-year career on the Westfield City Council, Trant’s legacy will remain a mainstay on the Post Office’s walls.
“Today we stand here at the completion of an event because we did the right thing,” said City Councilman Brian Sullivan, the ceremony’s final speaker. “We get to put a gentleman’s name on a federal building to honor him, his patriotism, his honor, his dedication to a city that he loved, that will forever have his name on it.”
