Lewiston native Colonel Donald Dubay, USA-Ret., who served in the Vietnam War, the Middle East, and Operation Desert Storm, will be the featured speaker at the event.

With support of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Franco-American Collection at USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College recently called upon local Franco-American veterans and their families to provide information about their U.S. military service for inclusion in a historical archive.

The vast wealth of stories, information, and memorabilia they brought forward, reflecting a century of contributions by both men and women in World War I, World War II, the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, will be the subject of a capstone exhibit at Lewiston-Auburn College on Tuesday, May 23 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Free and open to the public, the event will also include a program called “Franco-Americans: A Bridge to International Diplomacy” and a reception to recognize those who made contributions to the project.

In the program, Ambassador Charles Franklin Dunbar of Brunswick, Maine, will introduce honored guest speaker Colonel Donald Dubay, USA-Ret., a native of Lewiston who served in the Vietnam War, the Middle East, and Operation Desert Storm. The two men will speak in French and English to describe their shared experiences serving with United States diplomatic missions in the Middle East before Colonel Dubay will discuss his career in the U.S. Army.

Dubay grew up in Auburn, graduating from Edward Little High School and the University of Maine at Orono. Students from Edward Little will attend the program under the supervision of assistant principal Erik Gray, while the University of Maine at Orono will be represented in the program by Susan Pinette and Lisa Michaud of the Franco-American Centre.

Colonel Dubay and his wife, Gail Schnepf Dubay, live in North Carolina and visit Maine frequently.

“Our volunteer board worked collaboratively with Lewiston Auburn College and dozens of veterans to collect the data we are including in our community program,” said Doris Bonneau, president of the Franco-American Collection’s board of directors. “We consider this program to be a capstone event to review the highlights of our collective efforts.” For more information about the event, call 753-6545 or email janet.roberts@maine.edu.