My hero: wounded vietnam veteran inspired me to live life this way

After a year in hospital back in the U.S., he decided that God had a plan for him to recount his experiences to the world. For the past five decades, he has accepted an average of 250 

speaking engagements a year, traveling to every state and more than 40 countries. McClary talks about leadership, patriotism, God, country and fighting on that hill, telling his story in

schools, prisons, churches, military bases and corporate boardrooms. His message is amusing, self-deprecating and inspiring. Refusing to limit himself, he plays golf, hunts and lives on

Pawleys Island, South Carolina, where he grew up. Lessard recalls that one of the things McClary told students at the 1975 camp was to close their eyes and pretend to be at their own funeral

listening to what mourners were saying about them. How did they want to be remembered? The students then had to write their own epitaphs and put them on the bathroom mirror. Lessard wrote,

“Good father, good husband, contributed to community and country.” Lessard, 64, has certainly lived up to that description. A husband, father, soccer coach and a Marine reservist, he still

runs the Lighthouse Project and is president of the philanthropic High Point Community Foundation, which has raised $200 million. “Without the influence of Clebe in my life I am not sure I

would ever have had the self-belief to raise that amount of money,” he said. McClary, who is now 82, puts it all down to God’s plan. “The lesson is we should bear witness whenever we can, be

it at a sports camp, a football team or a Rotary Club,” he said. “You never know when you are going to touch someone. I did not know Paul back in 1975. He was a high school kid. But because

of the influence I had on his life he has since got me in to speak to hundreds of schools, clubs and companies and maybe we changed some lives there too.” _You can _subscribe here_ to _AARP

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