Memorial to Michael Pack opens in Amherst Sandstone Village

AMHERST — Family, friends and community members gathered in an emotional ceremony on Tuesday as the Amherst Historical Society opened its new memorial to the late Michael Pack. Pack was 23 when he died. His friends and family wanted to create a fitting tribute to the beloved young history buff. The physical memorial unveiled Tuesday in the Amherst Sandstone Village included a little library bearing Michael Pack's name, and organizers said it would grow to include a memorial bench on a large sandstone slab, a nearby pollinator garden and a QR code which will link to a biography, timeline and photo gallery of Pack's life. A donation of $1,400 was also made in his name to the Historical Society, and The Chronicle-Telegram wrote at length about his love for history in an article on Monday. Pack died on Feb. 1, 2023, after a family dinner to celebrate his father's birthday. He had just taken vacation time from his job and was planning a trip to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, two major Civil War historic sites. He died that night of a pulmonary embolism, one week short of turning 24. Plans to build some kind of memorial began after Pack died, and his friend Jacob Kelley hatched and presented the idea of the memorial plot to Pack's family before it eventually ballooned into a community wide effort. "Michael had some incredible friends," his father, David Pack, said to the crowd Tuesday. "... We all have some incredible friends, look at how many people are here tonight. I'm amazed at the amount of people that are here. It's something that we live (with) every day — missing Michael — and I don't want to ever forget him. All I know is, I said it that day and I'll say it again, he's a better man than I'll ever be. I love him." David Pack thanked those in attendance for their support and for being there for the opening of his son's memorial, and he specifically praised Michael Pack's friends and especially Kelley for their work on the project. "I just want to say that I really appreciate it, especially what Jacob did," David Pack said after the ceremony. "He stepped forward and really went above and beyond. It blesses my heart that someone thought enough of my son to do something like this. We are really blessed." Though the project was Kelley's idea, he was insistent that it was his friends, their Amherst Steele High School Class of 2017 classmates and the entire Amherst community who made it possible. "It was a community effort the whole way," Kelley said. "It was a community idea that was community funded to give something back to the community. We talked about it with some other classmates and then presented the idea to his mother (Sandy Pack). We decided to go ahead with it and worked with the family and the (historical) society to find something that worked for both of them, and this was the end result." Amherst Historical Society Director Sandy Kaiser and board member Matthew Rector participated in the commemoration as well, accepting the donation and welcoming the memorial into their space. Rector said the spot chosen for the memorial was significant because it sits next to a barracks that was once used to house German prisoners of war in World War II, a fact that Pack would have greatly appreciated. Also being placed inside the barracks in Pack's honor will be a plaque commemorating him that was made by his father. "I think Michael's memory is going to live on here, because we have all these great historical events that happen here in the (Sandstone) Village," Rector said after the event. "So visitors, reenactors (and) historians are going to come over here. Any good historian is going to look in the little library, and in doing so they are going to find out who Michael is." Kaiser stepped forward to accept the monetary donation in Pack's name, and to thank the community for entrusting his memory to the society. "It is just such an honor that his family and friends have chosen this to be the place to remember Michael," Kaiser said after the event. "I can't imagine a better place to honor him. Now he gets to rest with history, and see more of it be made around him." Also speaking to the crowd on Tuesday was Pack's sister, Susan Pack, who delivered some actionable advice for the attendees. "I do want to say, if you guys take anything with you from today; if you love someone, please tell them," Susan Pack said. "If you knew Michael, he did struggle with some mental health issues and even though he had the best friends in the world, sometimes he didn't think it. So if there is someone near you that you love, make sure you tell them." While the rest of the memorial space comes together, Michael Pack's free little library is open to the public to take and leave history books, children's books or anything else they think the community will enjoy. It is at the Amherst Sandstone Village between the barracks museum and the caboose. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.