Campus memorials honor veterans
From a bench with mourning bears to a plaque at the base of a towering redwood, memorials to U.S. veterans can be found across the UC Berkeley campus.
May 26, 2017
From a bench with mourning bears to a plaque at the base of a towering redwood, memorials to U.S. veterans can be found across the UC Berkeley campus. Some are familiar landmarks, while others are less well-known. The following is a sampling of some of these tributes to members of the campus community who gave their lives for their country and to veterans nationwide. Community historian Steven Finacom provided the list of memorials and historical information used for photos below.
The Class of 1920 bench was given to commemorate the heroism of the men at the university who died in combat during World War I. The marble bench includes two small sculptures of mourning bears and sits outside the entrance to the Campanile.
One of the mourning bears that sits atop the Class of 1920 bench.
Installed in 1905 and moved to its current site on the Campanile Esplanade several years later, the Mitchell Fountain is an inscribed stone pillar with a drinking fountain attached. It was the first veterans monument on the Berkeley campus and the only one to honor a single individual. It honors John Mitchell, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor in the "Indian Wars."
The Korean War memorial is a large rock with a bronze plaque that was given by the Cal Reserve Officer Training Corps Classes of 2001. It sits south of Alumni House and north of Zellerbach Hall.
The memorial plaque remembers classmates that gave their lives during the Korean War.
The Naval ROTC bench sits north of Haas Pavilion. The curved wooden bench is shaped like a "C" for Cal and was given in memory of those who died in World War II. The gift was given in the 1980s by donors who were members of Naval ROTC at UC Berkeley in the early 1940s.
California Memorial Stadium was completed in the fall of 1923 after about three years of fundraising. The neoclassical-style football arena was built to remember "in thankful memory, those Californians who, in the War of Nations, gave their all that we might live."
The main entrance to California Memorial Stadium.
Located on the southwest side of the Valley Life Sciences Building, the Grand Army of the Republic tree is a California coastal redwood planted in 1933 to commemorate veterans of the Union forces in the Civil War. There were many Civil War veterans living in Berkeley at the time.
Located on the southwest side of the Valley Life Sciences Building, the Grand Army of the Republic tree is a California coastal redwood planted in 1933 to commemorate veterans of the Union forces in the Civil War. (UC Berkeley photo)
Memorial Glade was made possible by the "War Classes" of 1945, 1946 and 1947 as a 50th anniversary remembrance honoring those who served in WW II. The memorial includes the planted glade, adjacent pool and three bronze plaques set in the pavement at the entrances.