Part of Highway 34 in Loveland Has a New Name – Who Was Sgt. John Thurman?

It's not very often that you drive through a city in Colorado and find that a part of a particular road has been dedicated to someone. A stretch of Highway 34 in west Loveland is now dedicated to a WWII soldier that lived in the Sweetheart City.

Who Was Sgt. John "Jack" Thurman in Loveland, Colorado?

It was in May of 2026 that I noticed a new brown road sign along west Eisenhower Boulevard (Highway 34) near Jax at Wilson Avenue. You don't see them very often, so I circled back to get a photo; then I set out to find out who Sgt. John "Jack" Thurman was. Of course, the Reporter-Herald had the details.

According to the Reporter-Herald, Jack Thurman served in WWII, earning a Bronze Star for heroism, especially for providing sniper fire in the Battle of Iwo Jima. After the war, Jack came back to Loveland, got married, had at least one child (daughter Karen,) and was a successful architect. Jack passed away at the age of 99 in 2025.

READ MORE: Sculpture in Loveland Dedicated to Different Forms of Firefighters

The stretch of Highway, from Wilson Avenue to CR 23H (a little passed Glade Road) was officially dedicated on Memorial Day 2026, after a bill was passed to do so.

A Park in Loveland is Dedicated to a Fallen WWII Soldier

A few miles to the east of the stretch of Highway 34 that's dedicated to Sgt. John "Jack" Thurman is Dwayne Webster Veterans Memorial Park, at Highway 34 and Garfield Avenue. Dwayne Webster was the first soldier from Loveland to die in WWII. Webster was serving on the USS Arizona when the Pearl Harbor attack happened; he and 1,176 of his shipmates perished that day.