Trimmer died June 14.
More than 100 people gathered in the sweltering heat on June 24 at the Stafford Civil War Park to remember one of the two men most responsible for the preservation of that site—Glenn Trimmer.
Trimmer, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, died June 14 at age 69.
His widow Becky, son Ross, daughter-in-law Erin, and grandson Oliver were all at the ceremony, along with dozens of friends, colleagues, and fellow historic preservationists.
“He was definitely the coolest dad and I miss him a lot,” Ross Trimmer said as the first person to share memories of his late father.
“He loved this park. He spent so many hours here. It was his home away from home,” Becky Trimmer reminisced.
“The two things he loved the most were this place and Becky,” said Trimmer’s daughter-in-law Erin. “Glenn loved so hard, and he loved fiercely. You saw that in his marriage to Becky and the way he raised his son and the time he spent with Ollie [his grandson], and in the way he built so many relationships.
I think it’s amazing that he left such an incredible legacy in this park and in all of you and the stories that you have.”
Fellow Class of 1977 VMI classmate Tom Orrell said that Trimmer “poured his heart and soul into the creation of the park.”
“He had a rare combination of qualities to work well with people, focus on the objective, solve problems, motivate people, to get the job done, all the while never losing his sense of humor, often with a smile and a wink,” Orrell said.
The ceremony was held in the park’s Trimmer-Newton Pavilion, which a sign at its entrance notes is dedicated to Trimmer and D.P. Newton, “two men who desired a park to honor the thousands of Union soldiers that encamped throughout Stafford County during the winter of 1863; a period many called their ‘Valley Forge.’”
(Valley Forge was the winter encampment in Pennsylvania of the Continental Army, under the command of George Washington, during the Revolutionary War, from 1777-78.)
Construction of the park was a collaboration between hundreds of volunteers, local citizens, businesses, Army and Air National Guard members, and officials of Stafford County and the City of Fredericksburg—and is a “realization of Trimmer and Newton’s vision.”
Trimmer’s partner in the creation of the park, local Stafford County historian D.P. Newton, died in 2019.
In an area where four major Civil War battles were fought, the Stafford Civil War Park stands out because it was the site of an encampment, not a battle.
The 41-acre park near Accokeek Creek is where elements of the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the 11th Corps spent the winter of 1862-63, following the Union Army of the Potomac’s crushing loss at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862.
One hundred and fifty years to the day after the Union Army’s 11th Corps marched out of the camp to fight at Chancellorsville, the preservation of the site was marked by the grand opening of the park on April 27, 2013.
By Scott Boyd
CONTRIBUTOR
