Floyd Riester is a charter member of the Soldier Field Veterans memorial committee and vice president of the corporation.
Floyd is a Vietnam Veteran of the 173d Airborne Brigade and was chairman of the 173d reunion that was held in Rochester when the idea for a memorial was born. He was one of the first people contacted to be on the committee to build a memorial.
The original idea was to build a kiosk or a plaque to honor the 173d and its relationship with the City of Rochester, since 1966 when Rochester adopted the 173d to show its support for our Armed Forces in Vietnam.
Floyd agreed to work on the committee with as much time that he could spare from his job with the State of Minnesota. Floyd spent countless hours during the formation of the memorial and Co-chaired the dedication program, June 25, 2000, with Harry Kerr. The amount of time spent was tremendous making the program memorable and probably the largest and best program ever held in Rochester.
Recently Floyd has not been able to spend the time on the memorial that he would like to because of his job transfer to St Paul. Even with the commute he has to and from St Paul he attends every function that is possible.
His commitment to the memorial at its inception was very important and very instrumental to the building of the Veterans memorial.
