Pendleton man restores veteran gravestones

Published 6:00 am Friday, August 1, 2025

PENDLETON — City of Pendleton regulatory specialist Brian Warren spends his after-hours time at Olney Cemetery.

“The only thing I’m really giving is my time. It’s not that much effort. It’s really just time,” he said on the evening of July 29. “A little bit of effort will go a long way.”

Warren was in the process of restoring two grave markers at the cemetery, which is what he’s done most days since the end of May, when he injured his achilles tendon, causing him to stop jiujitsu classes for more than a month. The idea to restore the stones came to him while scrolling Facebook, when he noticed Mission Restore Bronze Markers and looked into it.

A veteran runs the Arizona-based company that makes a wax to protect and clean headstones as a way to honor other veterans. It’s a nationwide, volunteer effort, according to Warren, a United States Army veteran himself.

Melissa Porter, the city’s cemetery specialist, said Warren is using approved materials and techniques for cleaning the stones. He’s even using the same technique used at Arlington National Cemetery.

Olney Cemetery has more than 19,000 internments, with most of them having stone markers of some kind. Of those, at least 1,000 denote veterans. Porter said she’s not sure exactly how many, though she’s working on getting an accurate count.

“We have a duty to take care of our veterans that have gone before us,” she said. “That’s a lot of where (Warren) comes from, being a veteran himself and taking care of those that have led the way for us.”

Warren had restored 376 veterans’ gravestones at the start of July 29, ending the evening at 392.

He said he goes out whenever he has free time. Each stone takes about 15 minutes of work, split between cutting grass on the edges of the stone, repainting the stone with spray paint, buffing the paint off the metal inscriptions and then coating it in the Mission Restore Bronze wax to protect it.

“I get more out of it than anybody,” Warren said. “This is near and dear to me, being a veteran, having friends that died between either combat accidents, suicide or whatever. It’s my way of giving back to them.”

As he waited for the spray paint to dry or took a break from the heat, Warren looked up information about the veterans whose graves he cleans.

On July 29, that included John Murphy, a Vietnam War veteran who earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He died in a helicopter crash in December 1970, according to the Virtual Wall. He was 20 years old.

Warren said he posts the information he finds to Facebook as a way to honor the veterans’ service.

“I like doing it for the veterans,” he said. “Plus I get to refinish something historical. That’s pretty cool.”

Originally from Boston, Warren said history is important to him and it feels meaningful to do something nice for people he’ll never meet, especially those who served in the military.

“They’re Americans, they’re veterans. That’s what matters to me,” he said. “I’m not left. I’m not right. I’m a soldier. That’s why I do this, plain and simple.”

When he’s cleaning the stones, Warren said, his head is calm. He said there’s a lot of bad happening in the world, but “out here there is no bad.”

“It brings me inner peace and happiness being able to help them,” Warren said as he cleaned Murphy’s grave stone. “Like,  I knew nothing about this guy until I started cleaning this. So it really does make you connect with the person.”

Cleaning the stones has given him more perspective, Warren said, and he’s noticed himself being more forgiving to the people around him without explanation, such as when he gets cut off at Dutch Bros. Coffee or someone turns in the wrong form at work.

“ I’m able to make ’em happy,” said Warren of the veterans’ family members, “and make ’em think, ‘At least we got one person that cares.’ If one person gives a hoot about you, the world ain’t so bad.”