Jere Melo
Not a plaque, exactly, but rather a modest plate on a park bench overlooking the Pacific in Fort Bragg.
The text:
Dedicated to Jere Melo (1941-2011)
Mayor of Fort Bragg and long-time City Council Member, a forester who worked with the lumber mill the once stood on this site and a tireless volunteer for various civil causes. Jere took pride in the many friendships he made with the great people of Otsuchi, Japan and was instrumental in fostering the sister-city arrangement between the two cities.
Dedicated August 29, 2015
A little backstory: Melo was shot to death in August 2011 while attending to his duties as a part-time security guard for a timber company with lands in the heavily forested hills east of town. The suspect, who was believed to have killed another man two weeks before the Melo shooting, became the subject of a weeks-long search. He was eventually tracked down and killed himself by one of several SWAT teams involved in the search.
Here's more on the story by way of the Los Angeles Times: "Fort Bragg slaying suspect killed by sheriff's deputies."
Submitted by: Dan Brekke