Rolland E. Kidder

Rolland E. Kidder is a Navy Vietnam War veteran, serving as a Patrol Boat Officer with River Division 535 in the Mekong Delta in 1969-70. Mr. Kidder won the Writer’s Digest Best Life Stories Award for his first book A HOMETOWN WENT TO WAR, an oral history of 37 WWII veterans.

He was appointed to the American Battle Monuments Commission by both Presidents Clinton and Obama and was a member of the original National World War II Memorial Design Committee. In addition, he is a Director of Friends of the National World War II Memorial. Mr. Kidder has long been active in politics; he served 4 terms in the NY State Assembly, started his own natural gas exploration company, and recently served as the Executive Director of the Robert H. Jackson Center.

Mr. Kidder is a graduate of Houghton College, Evangelical Theological Seminary, SUNY at Buffalo Law School and is currently on the Board of Directors for the National Fuel Gas Company.

He and his wife Jane live on Lake Chautauqua in western New York.