Voni Grimes of York was presented with a Rotary award Wednesday, and he played a couple of musical selections on his harmonica. (DAILY RECORD / SUNDAY NEWS -- BIL BOWDEN)
Voni B. Grimes was in Guam, and World War II had just ended, when a photographer approached him with a book of military photos he had taken.

He paid Joe Rosenthal "two or three bucks" for the book, which included Rosenthal's iconic image of five Marines and a Sailor raising the flag during the battle of Iwo Jima.

"He didn't know it was going to be what it was," Grimes said Wednesday, after the Rotary Club of York had presented him with its Charles Wolf Service Above Self Award.

Grimes served in both the Army and the Army Air Forces during the war -- the Army borrowed him for a time when it needed stateside logistic workers in 1944. He sailed to the Pacific theater late that year and was stationed in Guam and Saipan, where he continued to work office jobs.

While he was waiting to come home, Grimes developed the entrepreneurial spirit that so benefited him through life. When other men wanted to gamble, he would lend them $10 for a later payment of $12. He tailored shirts and sold soldiers his beer vouchers.

His service, he said, helped forge the man who would have such an influence in York.

"It makes you a better man because you have to be," the 86-year-old said. "It taught me responsibility."

Grimes returned to York in May, 1946.

Despite an often harsh racial atmosphere in the city at the time, Grimes focused on educating himself and others. He helped found several organizations, including Access-York, York County Department of Parks and Recreation, Community Progress Council and Central Pennsylvania Legal Services. He was also the director of business services at Penn State York.

On Wednesday, after he had accepted his award, Grimes took half a step away from the podium before returning, and pulled out his harmonica.

"I would like to play God Bless America," he said, "Because I love America and I say that with a capital G."

jfrantz@ydr.com; 771-2062

REMEMBERING FORT HOOD

Maj. Gen Robert Williams, commandant of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, gave the keynote address at the Rotary Club of York's Veterans Day meeting.

Before he concluded, he said he wanted to address last week's shooting at Fort Hood.

He knew, he said, that across the room and across the country people were thinking of the Army and what had happened.

"Don't grieve for us, grieve with us," he said. "We will get through this as the extended family that we are, especially with the support of the American people."