Erica Moura:

Long before Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti gave his life trying to save a fellow soldier in Afghanistan, he was an adventurous, big-hearted boy who looked out for his friends, Gold Star father Paul Monti told Stoughton High School students yesterday.

“Jared was a very adventurous young man. There was no tree too high, no river too wide, no hill too big for him,” said Monti, who taught school in Stoughton for 30 years and came back yesterday to instruct a new generation on the importance of Memorial Day.

He told stories of a young Jared who, when he was in high school, gave up his bed for a friend who was homeless. He told his father, “I figured he needed it more than I did.”

Jared Monti, who was 30 when he was killed in 2006, was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his repeated efforts to save a wounded soldier under heavy fire.