CONWAY — When oak trees were planted in 1946 on campus as living memorials to alumni who died in World War II, it was an idea ahead of its time, said Gayle Seymour, associate dean of the University of Central Arkansas College of Fine Arts and Communication.
A website launched a few weeks ago that is dedicated to the 47 veterans’ lives has moved the memorials into the 21st century. Students in the Schedler Honors College researched the 46 men and one woman and created the website, honors.uca.edu/memorial.
“What’s so intriguing about this — instead of building a hero on a pedestal like former civilizations have done, the campus in 1946 decided they would do something very contemporary and plant this living memorial, which was a new idea,” Seymour said. At that time, UCA was Arkansas State Teachers College.
Donna Bowman, professor of interdisciplinary studies in the Schedler Honors College, said she has been intrigued with the World War II memorial trees since she read an article about them in The Echo, the UCA student newspaper.
“I walk from my house through campus every day, and I saw these plaques suddenly appear, and I took a photo and put it on Facebook,” she said.
That was in fall 2015, and the bronze plaques had been placed in front of all the World War II Memorial Trees on Donaghey Avenue and outside Wingo Hall, McCastlain Hall and Bernard Hall.
“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a place a person looking at that plaque could go to find out more about that solider?’”
She said a light bulb went on immediately.
“This is exactly the thing I like to sic my students on and do some community-oriented research,” she said.
Bowman contacted Seymour and Charlotte Strickland, UCA’s professional-development and training coordinator. Strickland said her office highlights a different population of the campus each year. Last year, the focus was on service members — understanding and appreciating the military, she said.
Seymour asked Strickland and Kevin Carter, construction manager for the UCA Physical Plant, to help identify and mark the trees. A World War II Memorial Trees Committee was formed; Strickland is the chairwoman.
Bowman said her first-year Honors College students worked with a genealogist on campus to get information. The fallen alumni, who died from 1941-45, are listed with a page dedicated to each.
“What got my students super excited is when my students realized, ‘Oh, some of these people were in fraternities on campus, or they had my major.’ It turned [the veterans] from a name to a real person who has three-dimensionality,” Bowman said.
Strickland said that when she heard the Honors College students’ presentation about the website and bringing the veterans’ stories to life, “I was just bawling.”
“It’s not like we said, ‘OK, this is going to happen.’ We all came together; it was just the perfect storm,” Strickland said. “We were all dedicated and determined.”
She said UCA President Tom Courtway vowed to get money donated to fund the project.
The plaques were created and placed after Seymour and the Public Art Committee, which she chairs, started a conversation about identifying the trees.
Valor Bear, displayed at Wingo Hall, was carved in 2012 from one of the World War II trees, which was diseased.
That’s what made the Public Art Committee take notice, Seymour said.
“We thought it was time to really make these trees part of the campus culture, and if we identify them and celebrate them, students would see them every day,” she said.
Not everyone on campus supported the group’s efforts.
“We got a little bit of push-back,” Seymour said.
A few people on campus argued that no one knew for sure which trees were the ones planted in 1946 in memory of the students.
Seymour said her response was: “Once we identify them, they become the memorial trees.”
Some of the original trees were identified, she said.
“We worked with a botanist (Steven Karafit) in the biology department and used historical area maps of the campus and, to the best of our knowledge, were able to identify X amount of trees, so we took it very seriously,” Seymour said.
Another complaint was that some of the original trees had died and had been cut down.
Seymour said she countered: “Well, we’ll plant more.”
Originally, UCA planted 38 trees, because that’s the number of alumni believed to have been killed. A short time later, three more trees were planted. However, more recent research showed that 47 UCA alumni died while members of the U.S. Armed Forces.
A black granite memorial, etched with the 47 names, was unveiled in 2003 on the lawn of McAlister Hall.
Seymour said trees that were two or three years old and thriving on the Business Building lawn were chosen to be dedicated as those additional veterans’ memorial trees.
“That was kind of the beauty of the whole thing — I think it kind of freed everybody. These trees aren’t going to last forever; they’re nearing the end of their life cycle. It’s an easy fix. You just plant another one,” she said.
One of the 70-year-old memorial trees on the McAlister Hall lawn blew over in a storm April 29. Carter said Conway received about 4 inches of rain and gusts of wind up to 50 mph that night.
“It kind of buckled the street,” Carter said.
He said the tree that fell was about 60 feet tall, and it was fortunate the tree fell on the McAlister lawn, because had the tree fallen in the opposite direction, it might have damaged Valor Bear. He said another tree will be planted to replace the fallen tree.
Carter, who was responsible for overseeing the placement of plaques, said the downed tree was dedicated to Lt. Walker Tedford, Army Air Forces. No additional information is listed on the website about Tedford.
Carter said the plaques were installed just before Veterans Day 2015. “We barely made it,” he said.
No state money was used for the plaque project, Strickland said.
The chairman of the Marine Corps League of Conway collected donated materials from local businesses to install the plaques, and members of the league, as well as Vietnam and Desert Storm veterans, volunteered to prepare the concrete pads for the plaques.
In addition, Strickland said, a Veterans Fund was set up through the UCA Foundation for continued upkeep on the plaques or other needs. For example, she said the Honors College students found a name that was listed as Second Lt. Arvil Morris on the plaque, but the Vilonia native’s name was Orville. A new plaque has been ordered. More information about donating is available by emailing Strickland at chars@uca.edu or by calling her at (501) 450-5470.
“What’s cool is, we got the trees marked, and then we got money donated to do a brochure,” she said. The brochure, which was being printed last week, includes a map of the World War II Memorial Trees, as well as information about who donated to and participated in the project.
Strickland said the plaques were ordered from a company in Pennsylvania, which gave UCA a 30 percent discount.
No one on campus knows why plaques weren’t on the trees, because that apparently was the plan in the beginning.
Jimmy Bryant, the university’s archivist, has researched and written articles about the trees’ history. Bryant found that in 1946, after the final memorial ceremony for the UCA students killed in the war, Lt. Ralph Pemberton’s mother wrote a thank-you note to the memorial committee.
She wrote, “The trees are a lovely memorial, and selecting a tree which will bear his name plate gave us a great deal of comfort and satisfaction.”
David Williams, veterans services coordinator at UCA, also helped the effort to assign veterans’ names to the trees. He said at least 600 military men and women attend UCA, including veterans and their dependents, and those in the National Guard and Reserve and on regular active duty.
He said what the memorial trees project and website mean is “No. 1, these are guys and women who actually gave their ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, at the same time wanting to go to school and further their education. They were going here before the GI bill came out, … so they were paying out of their own pockets.”
He said that in looking through the university’s archives, “it was almost like a military academy” because of the number of veterans. “We’re just trying to show that UCA used to be very military-
friendly,” he said.
Bowman said future classes of Honors College students can work to expand the website into a military history website. Her idea is for the living memorial trees to be a page within the comprehensive site.
Seymour said the website “in itself is a living thing as information is gathered,” and it can be changed or
corrected.
“We have veterans in our classes every day, so this is a story that continues, unfortunately, and we need to be sensitive to these individuals. Institutional memory fades, and unless you do something about it — the few of us who even know about it — when we’re gone, it will completely fade from the campus.”
Seymour said the hope is to find descendants or lateral descendants of the veterans “and continue this conversation about people who gave their lives for the country, and maybe they would find some solace that we are keeping those memories alive on our campus.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.