Roy Adams spent a couple of decades in the Army, retiring as a Lt. Colonel. He experienced deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq, and saw a lot. Once back home in Westfield, Indiana, Roy started a new life path – learning furniture making as part of his GI benefits.
And it was a conversation with a former commanding officer that led him to build his first rocking chair. As the two shared about their times back in Iraq, the veterans recalled sitting in rocking chairs, made by Iraqi craftsmen. “We sat in these two chairs every night,” sharing feelings and thoughts. Reflecting on that, his former leader wanted Roy to craft him a rocking chair, which Roy was glad to do. That project would later be a spark plug in the creation of a non-profit organization that encourages veterans to share their own stories about serving their country. It’s called ‘Chairs of Honor.’
Chairs of Honor
“A chair is made for a veteran, and we ask him [or her] to sit in this chair, and then we record their story of service. Then we connect that story and that chair together with a digital ID.” The handmade chairs have a QR code that allows connection to the video with the story shared by the veteran. The video can be public on the Chairs of Honor web page, or restricted to family members.
Keeping the Stories Alive
One primary concern Roy shares, “All these stories are getting lost. We only tell each other. We don’t tell anybody else.” He believes these stories must be told and preserved for future generations.
The chair and video honor their service, while telling a personal war story might bring relief by just talking about it. The reaction from veterans who have been given Chairs of Honor? “I think the most important thing is they are very thankful for the opportunity to tell their story. I think that’s what’s a lot about the human condition is that people just want to know that what they’ve done in their life has made a difference to someone, some other thing beyond themselves.”
A Chair of Honor can take upwards of 60 hours to create. “I want to make sure that I put every skill and effort into this because I want them to treasure this chair in their family for generations. These are designed and built to last generations.” Roy shares from his heart, “I get a lot of joy and satisfaction [because] that’s what this is all about.”
Other than Roy, there are now four other Chairs of Honor builders, located in Louisville, Denver, near Minneapolis, and Portland, Maine.
In our compete podcast interview just below, Roy shares his intention to implement Artificial Intelligence into the chair-video link so that relatives, the public, and future generations can actually interact, in a way, with the veteran honored by each chair. But that enhancement is down-the-road a bit pending additional resources. Learn more here. Chairs of Honor is a registered 501c.3 Nonprofit
