Bellingham-born Marine honored with memorial bench along a trail he grew up on
U.S. Marines Lance Cpl. Jack-Ryan Ostrovsky grew on the trails of Bellingham, and now he’s got the best seat in the house along one of his favorites.
The city of Bellingham Parks and Recreation notified Ostrovsky’s father, Peter Ostrovsky, that a bench with a plaque was placed in Ostrovsky’s honor along the South Bay Trail. Peter Ostrovsky forwarded the certification of donation to The Bellingham Herald in an email.
“In loving memory of Jack-Ryan Ostrovsky son brother U.S. Marine,” the plaque on the bench reads.
The bench is located a couple hundred yards north of Boulevard Park with a perfect view of Bellingham Bay’s unforgettable sunsets.
What more could a Bellingham-born boy ask for?
Ostrovsky was one of nine U.S. service members who died July 30 when a Marine landing craft sank in hundreds of feet of water off the Southern California coast near San Clemente Island.
Though he enlisted in Bend, Oregon, Ostrovsky was born and grew up in Bellingham, loved hiking Whatcom County’s trails, developed his desire to join the military from spending time with law-enforcement co-workers of his father, Peter Ostrovsky, and graduated from Sehome High School in 2018.
“Jack was loyal to the city and state he grew up in, he was loyal to his friends and he was loyal to the Marines,” his mother, Lynn Ostrovsky, told The Herald.
Peter Ostrovsky’s former Whatcom County coworkers worked to memorialize Jack, the outstanding young man he was and his service to our country with the bench in Bellingham.
