Ron Aubrey isn’t a veteran.

But he does know that telling the stories of those who served — and giving their families a place to reflect — brings healing.

So when he learned a Glen Ellyn park, overgrown with weeds and invasive plants, was used to host a long-forgotten Memorial Day ceremony, Aubrey didn’t just feel nostalgic. He vowed to revive the site as a tribute for Glen Ellyn’s vets.

“I wanted something small, yet distinct, nothing ostentatious. Just something to really show reverence and honor to the people who’ve served us,” Aubrey said. “And I think we really pulled it off.”

When he began spearheading the project in 2012, the only clue to the park’s history was a stone monument with a faded plaque, the “lone soldier,” Aubrey says.

Now, five flags and granite markers — for every branch of the military — stand guard over a concrete pentagon, where the village will once again observe Memorial Day.

“What we’re hoping to do is kind of reestablish that tradition,” says Joe Adduci, U.S. Army vet and 1st vice commander of American Legion Post 3.

That tradition goes back to the mid-1920s, when the Legion’s Memorial Day parade stepped off from the corner of Crescent and Park boulevards. The monument was installed less than a decade later, in 1934, to recognize Civil War vets.

It’s now the centerpiece of the new memorial. About $110,000 was raised from donors for the construction, landscaping and seating, among other upgrades.

“People will come and sit on the bench in private solitude,” Aubrey said. “How cool is that? They’re stopping and just pausing and reflecting and maybe healing. That gives me the chills. So there’s something special here.”

Aubrey has seen that healing in the family of Bruce Capel, a Marine killed in Vietnam 50 years ago and a 1961 grad of Glenbard West High School, just across the street from the memorial.

While beautifying the park and poring over newspaper clippings, Aubrey found out four trees were planted there in honor of Capel and three other Glenbard alums who died in Vietnam. He tracked down Capel’s brother, Steve, in Virginia, expecting a “very short phone call” to share news of the project.

An emotional, hourlong conversation later, Aubrey considered Capel, a senior football captain at West, an “all-American boy.”

Their exchange led Steve Capel to send Aubrey sympathy letters that overwhelmed his parents after his brother’s death. And it also led Aubrey to help organize a reunion with Capel’s family and his fellow Marines last fall during Glenbard’s homecoming.

His nieces, of course, never knew their uncle. But they got a glimpse into what one veteran who trained at Capel’s base called the “perfect example of a good Marine.”

“He was certainly a fierce competitor on the football field, but kind of a gentle giant off the field, very unassuming, unpretentious,” Aubrey said “People just liked to be around him.”

He hopes to recreate those experiences for those with ties to Glen Ellyn’s 193 veterans who died in conflicts dating back to the War of 1812. Aubrey has started a website, Glenellynheroesoffreedom.org , to document “what they stood for” and “why they did what they did.”

He’s seeking personal photos, letters, newspaper clippings — anything that captures “the story behind the person.” He also hopes to enlist Glenbard West students in the research, a volunteer opportunity the district says would likely be made available to students next fall.

“It now becomes a perpetual living legacy. Theoretically, the life doesn’t end,” Aubrey said. “Now to me, that’s really the ultimate for this memorial.”