By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
LAWRENCE — The new memorial on the north side of the University of Kansas’ football stadium honors 2nd Lt. Charles Seward, a track and field star who left the university as a junior to enlist in the U.S. Army and train with Canada’s Royal Army Flying Corps to become a combat pilot.
Seward, who was born in Neodesha, was assigned to the 139th Aero Squadron and deployed to France in early 1918 as U.S. forces surged troops into World War I. He died in a plane crash April 6, 1918.
The new memorial at the stadium also pays tribute to Lucy McLinden, who grew up in Cedar Point and was a sophomore at KU when she volunteered as a nurse in military barracks located on campus in 1918. The barracks helped care for students sick with influenza. She contracted the virus within weeks, suffered from pneumonia and died in the university’s hospital.
The memorial also recognizes 2nd Lt. Albert Ellis Birch, who was born in Oak Hill and attended KU from 1915 to 1917. He was in the Kansas National Guard before commissioned a U.S. Army officer. He sailed to France in June 1918 with Company A, 342nd Machine Gun Battalion, 89th Division. He was wounded Nov. 1 by an artillery shell, but stayed with his soldiers at the front line and earned the Distinguished Service Cross.
Hours before the armistice took effect Nov. 11, 1918, Birch was killed when a shell landed close to his position. His final letter home, dated Oct. 30, was signed, “a soldier of democracy.”
On Friday, KU plans a rededication ceremony at Kansas Memorial Stadium with recognition of large panels honoring 130 students, faculty or alumni who died during World War I.
The two-year conversion of the stadium into David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium included construction of the WWI memorial. There are aluminum panels with names of 130 KU-affiliated individuals who gave their lives during the war. Additional panels offer historical information about the war, including a timeline and mapping of key battles.
The stadium was initially completed in 1922 and dedicated on Armistice Day as KU’s first WWI memorial. Although named to honor former students and faculty, the stadium itself didn’t have a commemorative monument. Plaques located in the Kansas Memorial Union honored those who died in military service in WWI.
KU Chancellor Douglas Girod said addition of the stadium memorial reflected a commitment to remembering this group of Jayhawks and upholding ideals they defended.
“I encourage veterans, active military, reservists, KU community members and the general public to join us in honoring the Jayhawks who made the ultimate sacrifice, as we open a new chapter in the storied history of this World War I memorial stadium,” Girod said.
The rededication is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Friday on the Garlinghouse Plaza outside a new convention center on the northeast side of the stadium.
KU campus parking lots and the Mississippi Parking Garage will be closed at that time to regular faculty, staff and student parking to accommodate the KU football game set to start at 6:30 p.m. Friday. Parking will be available at no charge in the Allen Fieldhouse garage. Shuttle buses can carry people to David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
U.S. Army Capt. Harrison Manlove, a KU graduate, conducted research on the 130 deceased people while an ROTC student. He discovered one person who had been inadvertently excluded from original listings.
Retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Mike Denning, KU assistant vice chancellor for national defense initiatives, said the memorial would serve as a visual reminder freedom had to be built upon sacrifice.
“At the heart of being a Jayhawk is a tradition of selfless service,” he said. “Through this remembrance, their legacy remains vivid and tangible.”
