San Rafael, CA – Josh Fryday, a Novato City Council member and U.S. Navy veteran, will be the featured speaker at Marin County’s annual Memorial Day event May 30 at the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium in San Rafael.
Josh Fryday
Fryday, a Novato native, served as a lieutenant in the Navy after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. With more education at the Officers Development School and the Naval Justice School, both in Newport, R.I., he became a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, better known as JAG.
Fryday served in Yokosuka, Japan, where in addition to his legal duties he augmented the Navy’s 7th Fleet’s Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief efforts during Operation Tomodachi, a coordinated U.S. armed forces assistance effort in response to the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster. He was also stationed in the Office of Military Commissions, working on the Guantanamo Bay detainee cases, and testified before the U.S. Senate about the closing of the American military prison in Cuba.
Today, Fryday is an executive in the clean energy advocacy group but stays involved in national and global affairs. He is a fellow with the Truman National Security Project, which engages world challenges through the use of defense, diplomacy, development and democracy. He is a term-member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a nationwide nonpartisan organization that helps further understanding of the world’s foreign policy issues. Fryday was elected to the Novato City Council in November 2015 and lives in Hamilton with his wife and two young boys.
The Memorial Day event, presented by the Marin County United Veterans Council and supported by the Marin County Board of Supervisors, honors all fallen American servicemen and servicewomen in the line of duty with a special emphasis on Marin’s own heroes. It includes an indoor ceremony inside the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium followed by an outdoor ceremony in front of the military monuments on Avenue of the Flags just outside the auditorium.
The event is to begin with a musical performance at 10 a.m., and the indoor ceremony starts at 10:30 a.m. The start time accommodates veterans participating in early-morning Memorial Day events in Novato and West Marin.
The Civic Center ceremony will feature patriotic marches played by the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District Non-Marching Band and the singing voices of recording artist and actress Susan Zelinsky with her daughters Ruby and Rachel Jobe. Cadets from U.S. Air Force Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps based at Novato High School will participate as a color guard, drill team and flag raisers, and elected officials and representatives from local veterans groups will be recognized.
The program then moves outdoors to the memorials on the Avenue of the Flags. After wreaths are laid at the foot of statues, “Taps” is played to conclude the ceremony. Doughnuts and coffee then will be served in the Redwood Room of Marin Center.
Learn more about Marin County’s Veterans Services program by watching this short video. The program is overseen by the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services.