Charles City Flag Day Ceremony will be 5 p.m. Friday at Elks Lodge

Press Staff Report

The annual community Flag Day ceremony will be held at 5 p.m. Friday, June 14, at the Elks Lodge in Charles City.

The Elks Lodge No. 418 organizes the event each year, which includes presentation of the colors and a guest speaker.

Speaker this year will be Phil Hess, a native of Charles City who was recently the first recipient of an honorary Charles City High School diploma.

Hess dropped out of high school after his freshman year in what would have been the Class of 1951, but went on to earn his GED and then a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

After working various jobs he enlisted in the Air Force, where among his duties was helping take the aerial photographs that mapped Alaska before it became a state. He later became a postmaster in Arizona, and helped with the implementation of the ZIP code.

Hess was named Postmaster of the Year in 1990 by the National Association of Postmasters.

The Elks have celebrated Flag Day for more than 110 years, beginning in 1907 when the Grand Lodge of the Elks designated by resolution June 14 as Flag Day. The Grand Lodge adopted mandatory observance of the occasion by every Elks Lodge in 1911.

Thirty-eight years later, on Aug. 3, 1949, President Harry Truman, himself an Elk, signed an Act of Congress designating June 14 as National Flag Day.