From left: Ron Truex, Rich Maron, Wayne Teeple, Bradford Jackson and Bob Conley.

WARSAW — Wayne Teeple was honored as Veteran of the Month at the Tuesday, Nov. 17, Kosciusko County Commissioners meeting in Warsaw. Rich Maron, veteran’s affairs officer, presented the award.

Teeple was born Nov. 22, 1924, in Oswego but grew up in Leesburg. He attended Leesburg High School and graduated in 1942. He had to wait until November, 1942, to sign up for the military because he was not 18 when he graduated.

Teeple was stationed at Beale Air Force Base, Marysville, Calif., after finishing radio training in Fort Knox, Ky. He spent 38 months in the 13th Armored Division, working specifically with communication and morse code ranked as a tech sergeant. His division was later moved to Texas, then France. While in France, preparing to ship to Japan, the U.S. dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. Shortly whereafter he returned home.

“You never forget it,” Teeple said of his communications training. “I can do morse code the same as I could back then, though it might be hard to keep up with listening to it now.”

After his honorable discharge, Teeple worked at People’s State Bank in Leesburg for 37 years and retired as executive vice president. He now lives at Grace Village with his wife, Gwendolyn. Together, they have two children: Pam Carroll, Warsaw, and Rev. Jack Teeple, Hicksville, Ohio; six grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. Teeple attends Grace Chapel in Grace Village.

Teeple shows no signs of slowing down. He still runs a shop every day at Grace Village and can fix just about anything for the residents. He also recently played his best game of golf, finishing just five over par.