Purple heart reunited with recipients family

WALLACE — A small box sat safely for more than 15 years in the back of Rich Asher’s North Idaho Trading Co.

Inside of the box was a Purple Heart medal, which was left at the store and symbolizes the sacrifices made by brave men and women in defense of our country.

Up until very recently, the recipient of the medal and the background that led to it being given to him was a mystery. However, a chance encounter at the store last year unlocked the mystery and returned the medal to the family of Cpl. Reed Clark — a World War I veteran who was injured in combat and lived in Wallace in the early 1900s.

“What Rich did is awesome,” said Donna MacDonald, a Texas resident and Clark’s great-granddaughter. “He could have very easily turned around and sold it or thrown it out and he didn’t. This gives us a piece of Reed, this just kind of brings him to life for us.”

On March 21, 2016, Don Turano was traveling through Wallace with Idaho’s Military Order of the Purple Heart. The Senior Vice Commander of the group was joined by fellow members on the trip to officially proclaim Wallace as a Purple Heart City, which Turano said means they will display signage and sign a proclamation signifying the city’s support and appreciation of Purple Heart recipients.

When the mayor was out at work and unable to meet with the group, they began walking around downtown-Wallace and stumbled on North Idaho Trading Co. When they started looking around, dressed in blazers with their own Purple Hearts prominently displayed, Asher asked the group if they were veterans of the Vietnam War.

After telling Asher, who is also a Vietnam-veteran, that they were veterans, the North Idaho Trading Co. owner told the group he had something for them and went to the back of the store.

“He came back with a beautiful little Purple Heart box, the same one that we all have,” Turano said.

According to Asher, the medal was left at the store 15 years ago. He had tried previously to find the recipient’s family, but was unsuccessful.

“Is there anything you guys can do with this,” Asher asked the group.

Initially, Turano said he was worried and hoped that they would be able to get it to the family. After the worry wore off, Turano said he was immensely grateful that Asher had saved the medal for all those years.

“He could have put a price tag on it, displayed it at his shop, and probably gotten a couple hundred dollars for it,” Turano said. “Luckily he’s a veteran and understands what the Purple Heart means. Thank God he kept that thing.”

Turano also tried unsuccessfully to track down the family of the medal recipient. He then turned to Zachariah Fike, a military veteran who founded the nonprofit organization Purple Hearts Reunited.

“Thank goodness for Zach, he knows how to pull the right strings,” Turano said.

In 2009, Fike started Purple Hearts Reunited after receiving a Christmas present from his mother. That year, Fike said he had begun collecting antiques, mostly military ones, as a form of therapy to deal with the things he went through during his military service.

When he opened the present from his mother, a posthumously awarded Purple Heart she had found at an antique store, the idea to locate and return missing Purple Hearts to their recipient’s family, or give them a home of honor, was born.

Since its inception, Fike’s organization has returned 300 Purple Hearts and other military decorations.

“In your own spiritual way, you’re bringing that person back to their family,” Fike said. “That item is the last tangible thing they’ll receive from a loved one.”

Once Purple Hearts Reunited received the medal from Turano, Fike said the organizations identified Cpl. Reed Clark based on the number engraved on the medal.

“Then, just like a detective would, we piece together the puzzle of their family history until we hopefully find a living descendant,” Fike said.

Through his research, Fike was able to determine that Cpl. Clark was born in Missouri in 1893 and his family moved to Idaho when he was a boy. In 1917, Clark enlisted in the Montana National Guard and was called into service when the United States entered World War I.

Clark was wounded in action on Oct. 2, 1918, and issued a Purple Heart on the same date in 1943.

Clark was honorably discharged and moved back to his home in Wallace, Idaho in 1919. He died on Sept. 28, 1951.

“I don’t think we’ll ever know why the medal ended up at North Idaho Trading Co.,” Fike said. “But, obviously, the end result was outstanding for this family.”

On March 2, Donna MacDonald received her great-grandfather’s Purple Heart medal at a ceremony in Dallas, Texas. In a telephone interview, MacDonald said that before she was contacted by Purple Hearts Reunited she had no idea about her great-grandfather’s story.

The process of reuniting her family with the medal, MacDonald said, launched her into doing a great deal of research into Clark’s background.

“It was pretty cool,” she said. “It’s been an adventure, the whole thing.”

MacDonald also isn’t sure about how the medal ended up at the store. But its journey back to their family, she added, has meant a lot to them and revealed that they have a storied tradition of military service spanning generations.

“It just put together all of these pieces of our family history,” MacDonald said. “It’s a piece of him and the sacrifice he made for our country.”