Saturday will mark the culmination of a promise made to the wife of Richmond County’s “Mr. National Guard” that the Rockingham National Guard Armory where he put in so much time and passion would one day bear his name.

Though Walter and Helen Bostick are neither here to see the day, the facility will now be known as the 1SG Walter E. Bostick Readiness Center.

“It gives me tremendous joy to honor 1st Sgt. Bostick,” retired Master Sgt. Walter Crowe said Wednesday. “I remember his ‘can do attitude,’ and how he impacted the soldiers he came in contact with — including me.”

Crowe said naming the armory after the “Soldier, Leader and Patriot” Bostick “is symbolic of how the soldiers he mentored feel about him.”

“My desire is that placing the armory in his name will inspire new generations of soldiers,” he concluded.

The Readiness Center is the headquarters of the 881st Engineer Support Company, which was first organized and recognized on February 23, 1955, as Company of the 139th Infantry, an element of the 30th Infantry Division.

Since that time, the unit was redesignated more than a dozen times, and was deactivated on September 1, 1996. It was eventually reactivated on Sept. 1, 2006.

Immediately following the ribbon-cutting ceremony on the armory, the 881st Day activities will be observed.

Bostick was born in Rockingham on May 27, 1924, according to a biography compiled by his fellow soldiers.

His mother Myrtle was a school teacher who met his father Frank while teaching at the Bostick School House, which is now a historic site in Ellerbe.

Walter grew up in the Roberdel community and was a member of Rockingham High School’s Class of 1943. Following his graduation, he enlisted in the Army and shipped out to World War II’s European Theatre.

First stationed in England, he would later fight in France, before returning home in February 1946. He would later enlist in the Army Reserve in 1949.

He worked at Colonial Grocery and delivered bread for Sunbeam before marrying Dorothy “Dot” Reynolds in 1948. Their marriage yielded a son named Ken who teaches at Washington Street School, and a daughter named Susan who currently resides in Florida.

In 1955, Bostick helped to establish the Rockingham National Guard Armory.

From 1963 through 1970, Bostick held an administrative position with the City of Rockingham, while remaining active with the National Guard as an administrative supply technician and a platoon sergeant. He also served as a firefighter for the city, before switching to full-time employment in the National Guard as Sgt. 1st Class before being promoted to 1st Sgt.

He remained active with the Guard and American Legion Post 147, before retiring in 1983.

“Through his personable interaction with the community and identifiable association with the National Guard Armory, Bostick affectionately came to be known to many in the area as ‘Mr. National Guard,’” the soldier’s biography reads.

Later, it states that Bostick “was a mentor to the men he worked with at the Armory and elsewhere,” by many accounts, and “was private about his charitable nature and his plain intention was to dedicate serve to God, family and community.”