Gateway To Honor

Former students are already purchasing plots in the Aggie Honor Cemetery slated to be finished in 2009.

“Let us hold our lives up to the light of those who walked before us, remembering the footprints they left behind and preserving the pathways they created,” said Jack Fritts, Class of 1953.

Fritts made a proposal in 1993 for The Association of Former Students to construct and maintain a cemetery memorializing Aggies. The idea of creating a final resting place for Aggies has been tossed around since the 1930s, Weldon Kruger, class of 1953, said, but the Association decided it did not have the means or experience to manage a cemetery. Those still interested in the idea tried working with a private developer, but funds could not be raised.

Around that time, though, the city expressed an interest in the project.

“A group of about five or six of us with the cemetery committee started working with the city, the city fathers, to try to convince them to put in the Aggie Field of Honor as part of this new development. And that’s what’s happened. What you see being developed out there on the west side of town is the Memorial Cemetery of College Station, and a big part of that, half of that or more, is the Aggie Field of Honor,” Kruger said.

Kruger said the group was made up of Dick Birdwell, a member of the city council, Joe Wallace, a member of the City Cemetery Committee, and Kruger, all from the class of 1953. Another former student, Dennis Gary, involved in project development in the College Station area, also joined the committee, as well as an attorney from the University who had formerly served on city council. Jack Fritts, another member of the Class of 1953, died before the city was involved.

Kruger said Fritts loved A&M. Fritts was president of the association in 1982 and started the candlelight ceremony during roll call at Muster with his A&M club in Austin.

“Jack had done a lot of work on [the Aggie Field of Honor] – economics, preliminary design and all sorts of things – had it ready to go. He was really disappointed when the board of the Association said ‘you know, we all think it’s a great idea, but we just don’t think this is something that we need to get into.’ That was 1993 or 1994. And here we are 14 years later,” Kruger said.

Two surveys were conducted and e-mails were sent out to former students to find out how many people would be interested in buying a space in the cemetery. Kruger said the feedback was positive.

“More and more A&M people are retiring and coming back here [College Station],” said former head football coach R.C. Slocum, a recent addition to the committee. “It’s my intention to be buried there [the Aggie Field of Honor] myself … this has been home for me for most of my adult life.”

The committee was expanded to take on the design, Kruger said. Most of the members are Aggies. The committee advised the design team and architects in the development planning.

The members sought inspiration by traveling to the Veterans’ Cemetery in Fort Hood and watching videos of other cemeteries including the Arlington National Cemetery. “We wanted something classy, attractive, something you can really feel good about,” Slocum said.

Once the design was completed the city approved the funding for construction.

Student Body President Mark Gold said the cemetery is a great way to honor Aggies.

“It’s another way for the city and A&M to work together, to respect each other. It’s going to have an incredible impact on the community and A&M both,” Gold said.

Other universities, including Notre Dame, Duke, The Citadel and the University of Virginia are creating final resting places for alumni as well, according to USAToday.

According to the Master Plan, the Memorial Cemetery of College Station will encompass 56.6 acres of land on the northwest corner of FM 2818 and FM 60. The city bought some University land for the project, and will design, build and maintain the cemetery, including the 20 acres dedicated to the Aggie Field of Honor.

However, Kruger said he thinks that Aggies will request enough space to push this section past the planned 20 acres.

The first phase of the cemetery is under construction and is expected to be operational by February 2009, according to Ross Albrecht, project manager for the Memorial Cemetery of College Station.

The first five acres of the municipal cemetery and the Aggie Field of Honor, which will be sectioned inside the municipal cemetery, are included in this first phase. Each section will have the capacity for about 3,000 burial spaces and a columbarium with niches to hold ashes. Roadbeds, the entrance gate, fencing and a central plaza consisting of a committal shelter and information center will also be completed.

A seal for the Aggie Field of Honor was designed with the University and the state seal of Texas in mind, Albrecht said. The seal will mark the entrance gate and the gates to the west, south and east fields, all sections dedicated to the Aggie Field of Honor. From the entrance gate, the road leads straight to the central plaza, where the committal shelter, information center and two internal columbariums are located.

The large columbarium in the West Field will arc around an Aggie Ring monument and face Kyle Field. This visual line stretching from the columbarium to campus is also aligned with the central plaza and the Spirit Gate, a large block A&M symbol tilted up and elevated. Muster symbols will decorate both the columbarium and Spirit Gate. A bugle stand will be in front of the Spirit Gate.

Kruger said the history of A&M is military, and while the committee did not want the cemetery to be overloaded with military style, they wanted to include as many Corps of Cadets references as possible. “That’s why we had the bugle stand in there. There’s going to be a lot of burials out there where people want Taps to be played,” Kruger said. “I started to look at this as sort of a final muster, or the final mustering place.”

While the Aggie Field of Honor is designed for Aggies, the city cannot by law exclude other parties from buying spaces, and to do so might leave out Aggie family members who did not attend the University but would like to be buried with relatives, Albrecht said.

Religious leaders of different faiths were invited to address the committee about burial practices. “We wanted it [the Aggie Field of Honor] to be acceptable to a cross section of A&M, not just one group,” Slocum said. “The idea was to make it faith-neutral, reflecting the entire student body, all races, religions, student activities … not offensive to anyone.”