STORRS, CT — The University of Connecticut Alumni Association will hold a ceremony Saturday, June 6, to unveil a Roll of Honor that memorializes alumni who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to the nation. It is one of many events that will make up the association’s annual Alumni Weekend, including the 50th reunion of the Class of 1959.
The ceremony will take place at 8:45 a.m. in the Centennial Alumni Center on the Storrs campus and is open to the public.
The Roll of Honor, which includes the names of 131 fallen alumni, was prepared in conjunction with the Ultimate Sacrifice Memorial, which stands near the Wilbur Cross Building on the University’s main campus. Betsy Pittman, University archivist and interim director of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, coordinated research to identify and verify the names of those UConn alumni who died of wounds or injuries sustained while serving in the armed forces of the United States.
The June 6 dedication is in conjunction with the dedication of the Fort Trumbull Room in the Alumni Center. From 1946 to 1950, a former U.S. maritime training facility in New London served as a temporary regional campus to accommodate some of the influx of new students attending classes through the federal G.I. Bill.
The Fort Trumbull Room will commemorate the thousands of students, the vast majority of them veterans, who began their UConn education on the temporary campus in New London. Morton Tenzer, a retired UConn political science professor, will deliver remarks regarding the Fort Trumbull campus, which he attended as a member of UConn’s Class of 1953.
Myles Martel, a member of UConn’s Class of 1965 and chair of the Memorial Committee, will deliver welcoming remarks and will speak about the memorial and the Roll of Honor. Martel also is a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors.
During the dedication, members of UConn’s ROTC cadet corps will read the names listed on the Roll of Honor.
The Ultimate Sacrifice Memorial was dedicated during a 2008 Veteran’s Day observance at the University last November. Funded through support from the alumni association, the memorial is a 10-foot by 5-foot brick wall with a cutout in which hangs a replica of the headstones at Arlington National Cemetery. It stands on a granite base.
The Memorial Committee has sought help in gathering names from all wars and conflicts in which the United States has been engaged since the founding of the University as Storrs Agricultural School in 1881. That effort will continue and as additional names are submitted and verified the Roll of Honor will be updated.
Any former student who attended the University for one semester qualifies as an alumnus. Anyone who may have information about UConn alumni who died during the Vietnam War, or any other war or military engagement in which the United States was involved, is encouraged to send the information to Pittman at Betsy.Pittman@uconn.edu or to the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, 405 Babbidge Road - Unit 1205, Storrs, CT 06269-1205.
Donations to support the memorial and the research effort may be made to The Veterans Memorial Fund at the UConn Foundation, 2390 Alumni Drive, Storrs, CT 06269-3206.
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