He could have been a lawyer, for that was the career path Lavern W. Gardai was considering as he graduated high school and enrolled in college in his home state of Michigan back in 1949.
Today at 94, he has no regrets that wasn’t to be. Instead, this Maryville resident has a different story to tell. One that involves a year serving in Vietnam with the U.S. Army, a total of 28 years in all as a military chaplain.
Some locals know him due to his founding of the Veterans Coffee Fellowship, which he did at the age of 90 here in Maryville. It went from weekly attendance of three to five to now 40-plus veterans from all ranks and military branches. Somehow a retired U.S. Navy Captain, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, found out about Gardai and dug deeper into his remarkable story. David E. Grogan knew he had to put Gardai in the book he was writing. It’s called “Learning to Live From Those Willing to Die.”…