Seventy-five years ago, Brown students, faculty and alumni gathered at the eastern end of Lincoln Field to dedicate The Soldiers Memorial Gate, now known as Soldiers Arch. It was April. Four years earlier, the United States had entered World War I, and the entire Brown student body had been inducted into military service. Forty-two Brown men, including one faculty member, died in "The War." Their names are inscribed on the arch.
Now, at the other end of the 20th century, the Brown community will gather again at the same spot and for the same reason. War - global war, police action, regional conflict - has been an almost constant companion in this century. The decades since the dedication of Soldiers Arch have increased Brown's honor roll of 20th-century war dead to 243.
On Sunday morning at 9:15, the University Hall bell will begin tolling for those 243 alumni lost in armed conflict. In a ceremony of remembrance beginning at 9:30, President Gregorian, Brown alumni and University guests will honor Brown's war dead and will announce plans for developing the area around Soldiers Arch as a place of meditation and harmony.
Four wreaths will be laid near the arch during that ceremony. Sen. John Chafee will honor the University's 42 World War I dead. (Chafee's father, John '18, served in the ambulance corps and in the Army.) Richard Tracy '46, president of the 50th Reunion class, will honor the 177 alumni who died during World War II. Theodore Low '49 will honor the seven Korean War dead, and Thomas Coakley '68 will honor the 17 alumni who died in Vietnam. Chafee and Coakley also will present Commencement Forums on Saturday about the Korean and Vietnam wars.
The Sunday ceremony at Soldiers Arch will also mark the end of a decade-long search for an appropriate memorial, as President Gregorian announces plans to improve and extend the current memorial area.
In 1988, following a design competition, the University chose Richard Fleischner, an internationally acclaimed sculptor and environmental artist, to undertake design work on the memorial project. Fleischner, who has taught both at Brown and at the Rhode Island School of Design, had submitted a design for a memorial space that would have been installed in the middle of the sciences quadrangle at Manning Walkway. It was to have been a circular area, with design elements that evoked classical monuments and visual planes that acknowledged Soldiers Arch.
The University's evolving plans for the sciences quadrangle, however, made that space less suitable for a memorial. Richardson Hall and Howell House, scheduled for demolition this summer, will give way to the MacMillan sciences building, and the shape of that space will change dramatically.
Fleischner began looking at other spaces and for a while considered installing a memorial similar to the one he had proposed for the sciences quadrangle in the area between Lincoln Field Building and Maxcy Hall. Then he returned to Soldiers Arch.
"The nature of my work is to tie things in contextually to what is going on, and this axis - all the way from Marcus Aurelius up to Barus and Holley - was significant," Fleischner said. "Soldiers Arch is a very substantial and beautiful monument that should relate better to other elements in that area of campus."
The University will remove the overgrown plantings that now obscure portions of the arch, particularly the window on the north side. Fleischner will develop the space between Caswell Hall and Metcalf Chemistry Laboratory to include seating, landscaping and the physical elements of a memorial (lights, memorial tablets, columns of granite or bronze). The arch itself will be cleaned and will become more noticeable. The memorial area will continue around the corners of Metcalf and Caswell and feather out into Lincoln Field.
"Soldiers Arch is a beautiful monument. Unfortunately, most people consider it as an entry to campus with its back side facing Lincoln Field," Fleischner said. "In reality, though, the campus exists on both sides; the entire structure should be appreciated. A memorial must accomplish all the things one seeks in a memorial that pays respect to those who have given their lives in war. But memorials are also places where people can go and think, where they will feel comfortable gathering, sitting, conversing."