Living History

Darren Moran, vice president of wealth management for Smith Barney in Naples, wishes he’d listened to his father more. As a child in Rochester, N.Y., Darren would sit at the breakfast table, reading The New York Times sports section, while his father, John, would tell stories about World War II.

"He would tell me, ‘There was one time this guy was shooting at us [from] behind the chimney on the rooftop while we were flying in Germany,’" Darren recalls. "I thought, ‘This has nothing to do with what the Yankees are doing.’ It was too unusual for me to understand."

In 1999, when his father died, Darren realized those war stories were important. "I didn’t want that history and that legacy of my father to fade. I was so motivated that I started going to reunions to find about [his] bomb group," says the 40-year-old father of two.

Darren’s increasingly extensive research led to his developing a weeklong Normandy tour for the American History Forum and Civil War Education Association. The opportunity grew out of another, disappointing trip he’d taken with the company. "Instead of complaining, I met with the owner and I told him that I could do a lot in the way of helping him with a [Normandy] tour," Darren says. The owner liked the sound of that—but said he needed star power. Conveniently, Darren was already corresponding with Harold "Hal" Baumgarten, a renowned WWII veteran and historian, whose experience on Omaha Beach inspired the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan. Baumgarten signed on.

The inaugural tour, covering all five beaches attacked during the Allied invasion of France in 1944, "went wonderfully," Darren says. "I was told second hand that it was a home run." His next tour is scheduled for September, and details can be found at www.cwea.net.