UND dedicates monument at Hyslop at Memorial Village
May 23—GRAND FORKS — Fifty-one military service members who lost their lives during WWI were remembered and honored Thursday, May 22, during a dedication ceremony for the monument that graces the entrance of the Hyslop at Memorial Village building.
The monument "shines a light on the sacrifices our students gave to their country," said President Andrew Armacost during the ceremony.
Several members of the local American Legion post served as the color guard for the occasion. The colors were presented in ceremonial fashion and the U.S. flag was raised to the middle, and highest, of three flagpoles, between the North Dakota flag and the UND flag.
The monument includes the names of 33 UND soldiers and 18 members of the Student Army Training Corps. The trainees were not UND students, but they came to UND to prepare for military service. All 51 died during WWI.
The memorial "is a perfect example of the sacrifice that they and others have made not just to the university, but the nation," Armacost said. "We owe it to them that that sacrifice is recognized and remembered forever."
The memorial is titled "Memorial Stadium Monument" and the message on its face reads: "Dedicated to those from the University of North Dakota who served, fought and died during WWI. We honor their sacrifice and preserve their legacy in stone and memory. Memorial Stadium, 1927. Memorial Stadium Monument, 2024."
Atop the brick base, five black granite pillars stand tall — four of them reflect aerial views of the stadium full of fans. The pillar on the right lists the names of those who lost their lives during WWI. That pillar reads "Honor. In Memorial" and "They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this nation. — Henry Ward Beecher," followed by the 51 names.
The Hyslop at Memorial Village building, located on the southeast corner of the intersection of Second Avenue North and Columbia Road, has provided first-floor office space for athletic department personnel since July 2024 and living quarters — in one- to four-bedroom apartments — for students and others during the past academic year.
It occupies the area where the former Memorial Stadium was built in 1927 — with 392,000 bricks — and razed in 2021, Armacost said. A ceremony held in March 2021 was before the stadium was razed.
About 100 years ago, nearly $200,000 was raised by students, faculty, alumni and Grand Forks business-owners to fund the project, which was dedicated to 33 UND soldiers and 18 young men who trained for the military at UND and who died in WWI. The stadium was also meant to honor Webster Merrifield, the university's third president.
The campaign was titled "Help the U that is helping you," Armacost said in his remarks during the program.
Thursday's ceremony replicated the ceremony that occurred in 1927, including Armacost's reciting the names of the 33 UND soldiers who died in WWI. At the conclusion of the reading, Joel Ness played the somber Taps.
"We gather together to dedicate not only a monument, but to honor a legacy of the UND students who left to serve in WWI and never returned," said Steve Burian, who serves on the Memorial Village Development Team and led the construction project. A UND alumnus and track athlete, Burian is president and CEO of Burian and Associates and serves on the UND Advisory Board.
The monument is a testament to "the courage, commitment and character of those men," but also to the athletes, students and fans who filled and enlivened the stadium. Those enthusiasts "poured their pride into UND at this historic site," according to the event announcement.
The five vertical pillars of the monument represent "loyalty, respect, service, courage and most importantly sacrifice," Burian said.
The legacy of this site is preserved through a time capsule, he said, and space has been designated for the capsule that will contain "a message for the future, about how far we've come" and progress expected in decades ahead.
Burian expressed gratitude to Armacost for "his deep respect for the military" and personal oversight of this project.
"May this memorial forever stand as a place of remembrance, reflection and gratitude," Burian told the crowd.
In his remarks, Armacost noted that the time capsule — to be placed in the building later — contains the flag that last flew in 2021 before Memorial Stadium was razed, a 2021 UND yearbook that features the stories of the 33 soldiers who died in WWI, the original ticket to the first game played in the stadium in 1927, other UND military items, an official football, and "a handwritten note from me to the UND president 50 years in the future."
The capsule will be placed within the new building sometime this summer, he said.
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