Carolina First

Carolina dedicates memorial to alumni war dead

From UNC News Services

“Here and now, you and I can do no less than re-dedicate our lives, our energy and our strength to make sure, very sure, that in our time, our generation will have done its part, done our very best to make this democracy worthy of the sacrifices of those we honor.”

University of North Carolina President Emeritus William Friday spoke those words April 12 to dedicate a new campus memorial honoring Carolina’s alumni who were killed during wartime.

Titled “Carolina Alumni Memorial in Memory of Those Lost in Military Service,” the installation on Cameron Avenue between Memorial and Phillips halls honors those who served in conflicts from the Civil War to the Gulf War. At the time of the installation, the war in Iraq had claimed no Carolina graduates.

Friday, a World War II veteran, remembered classmates who did not come back from the wars “to make the world safe for democracy” and “to end all wars.”

Since then, Friday said, “succeeding generations have fought other wars in Korea and Vietnam and Bosnia, Desert Storm and Somalia -- all across the globe. … We memorialize their gallantry, their patriotism and their sacrifice: These sons and daughters of this place, itself born of revolution, and we do so with profound gratitude and abiding love.”

The names of all 684 known alumni who perished are listed in a bronze Book of Names with pull-out panels. Space was left for additional names that were not discovered in research for the memorial -- as well as those who may be lost in the future.

The memorial also features 16 quotes, engraved in paving stones, from or about UNC alumni killed in wartime. And a long bench near Cameron Avenue points to the Old Well. Its street-side face is a stone wall like those common across campus. The other side, facing the rest of the memorial, is a red sandstone bench inscribed with a quote from “Look Homeward, Angel,” a novel by University alumnus Thomas Wolfe. The bench faces six low stone walls and 10 small blooming trees, bisected by a sidewalk with the 16 quotes inscribed.

Alumnus Robert W. Eaves conceived the idea for the memorial while visiting the American cemetery in Normandy, France. “It came to me that we didn’t have a place on campus to honor people who died in service to their country,” said the Chapel Hill businessman.

Back home, Eaves recruited fellow ROTC Carolina alumni Sherwood H. Smith Jr. (Navy) and Charles M. Winston Sr. (Air Force) of Raleigh. The three headed a committee that raised $300,000 for the memorial, mostly from ROTC alumni.

Maggie Smith, an artist who lives in Washington state, designed the memorial.

Eaves was on the committee that raised $5.1 million toward the $18 million renovation of Memorial Hall, completed in 2005. Constructed in 1931, the building -- the main auditorium on campus for the performing arts and university ceremonies -- was a memorial to David Lowry Swain, president of the university from 1835-1868 and North Carolina Governor from 1831-1835. It also memorialized alumni who died in the Civil War and World War I, as well as outstanding alumni and North Carolinians. Eaves realized that alumni lost in other conflicts had no memorial on campus.

Now, alumni who served in Korea, Vietnam, the World Wars and others – or others who observed their service -- have a place to share sentiments and stories. And all who pass by can remember their fellow students who died in service of their country.

“Each of them once walked on this campus … and strolled on Franklin Street on warm spring evenings,” Chancellor James Moeser said at the dedication event. “They were all Tar Heels, as we now are Tar Heels.”

To read President Friday’s prepared remarks, go to:

http://alumni.unc.edu/article.asp?SID=4830

Anyone who believes a friend's or a relative's name should be added should contact the GAA's Records Department at:

alumni@unc.edu

April 12, 2007