A-Z: V

Thomas F. Roberts and Otto Widman, consultants, 1920

To honor World War I casualties, the Victory Highway Association began a campaign in 1921 to set a statue of a female bald eagle defending her eaglets at every county line along U.S. 40, then a transcontinental highway. The Douglas County statue, said to be the second in the country, was paid for by donations from local women’s clubs; its base was set on land donated by H.G. Van Neste north of the intersection of U.S. 40 and Kansas 32 at the Douglas-Leavenworth county line and dedicated May 27, 1929.

On May 25, 1986, dedication ceremonies were held for the Vietnam War Memorial, the first on-campus commemoration in the nation. It honors 57 students and alumni who died or were declared missing. The 65-foot, L-shaped wall of native Kansas limestone, at the west end of Memorial Drive, was created by Doran Abel, an architecture major; Stephen Grabow, professor of architecture and urban design; and Greg Wade, the university’s landscape architect. Student Senate appropriations and donations from students, alumni and veterans paid for the memorial.