College to mark 10th anniversary of 9/11
The College of William and Mary will mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks with several events on Sunday, including a remembrance ceremony.
The College’s Wren Bell will toll at 8:46 a.m., 9:03 a.m., 9:45 a.m. and 10:10 a.m., the times when planes hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and when United Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania.
The Queens’ Guard will place a memorial wreath by the Sunken Garden around 8 a.m. and post a guard by it until 4 p.m. Additionally, a flag from Ground Zero will be displayed at the Sunken Garden.
Additionally on Sunday morning, the College’s Young Republicans and Young Democrats will post flags in the Sunken Garden in memory of those who died on 9/11.
At noon, the Wren Chapel will open for individual prayer, meditation and reflection. The chapel will remain open until 7 p.m.
Remembering Todd Weaver
At 4 p.m., the College’s ROTC cadets will lead a “ruck march” through the campus, beginning in the parking lot of Morton Hall. During a ruck march, Army soldiers wear a heavy backpack containing all of their gear. The campus community is invited to participate in the march and may wear backpacks to simulate what the cadets will wear.
The march will conclude near the Wren Building around 4:45 p.m. There, a mock plaque created in honor of the late Army 1st Lt. Todd Weaver ‘08 will be unveiled.
Weaver joined the Army National Guard after the 9/11 attacks and served a 10-month deployment in Iraq in 2004. At William & Mary, he received his bachelor's degree in government and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society in 2008, and he was commissioned into the U.S. Army through College's ROTC program. In September 2010, Weaver died in Kandahar, Afghanistan, after his unit was attacked with an improvised explosive device.
"William and Mary has been a very special experience, not just a college to the Weaver family,” said Jeanne and Donn Weaver, Todd’s parents, in an e-mail. “We have been blessed that three of our children and two of their spouses were counted among the graduates of the second oldest college in America. That the College, shortly after Sept. 9, 2010, a very sad day for our family, chose to recognize and honor our youngest son and most recent graduate has always been special to us.”
Following Weaver’s death, a memorial fund was created to sponsor a scholarship for a William & Mary student to spend a semester abroad. The fundraising campaign in Weaver’s honor, started by the College’s Student Athletic Advisory Council, included the sale of wristbands bearing the logo “One Tribe. One Family.”
“Todd Weaver loved the College of W&M and took so much from his undergraduate education there as to make him a well prepared adult and strong leader in our Army,” said the Weavers. “Thanks to the College, the SAAC, and many others his legacy as a W&M graduate is forever established. We cannot bring him back but we look forward to meeting many future W&M students who are able to study abroad, just as Todd did because of that legacy and his sacrifice.”
At 7:45 p.m. on Sunday, a candlelight vigil for Weaver will be held at the tree that was planted in his honor last year. The memorial tree is located to the left of the Brafferton Building. John McGlennon, chair of the government department, will read the proclamation of the scholarship dedicated to Weaver at the ceremony.
An exhibit entitled “Losing Todd: A Mother’s Journey” featuring paintings created by Jeanne Weaver in honor of her son will be on display in the Sadler Center through Oct. 22.
“We are forever a W&M family and hope some grandchildren and great grandchildren will also gain from the unique experience of the College," said the Weavers.
Remembrance ceremony
At 7 p.m. on Sunday, a 9/11 remembrance ceremony will take place in the Wren Courtyard. The event will include the tolling of the Wren Bell for each of the seven alumni who died in the attacks. Chon Glover, assistant to the president for diversity and community initiatives, will read their names. President Taylor Reveley will give remarks and representatives from across the campus community will present selected readings at the ceremony.
The seven William & Mary alumni who died in the Sept. 11 attacks were Alysia Christine Burton Basmajian ’00, James Lee “Jimmy” Connor ’85, Michael Hardy Edwards ’90, Mark Gavin “Lud” Ludvigsen ’91, Christopher William Murphy MBA ’98, James Brian Reilly ’98 and Gregory J. Trost ’97.
“Sunday’s program is a time for the W&M family to gather, to remember, and to affirm life,” said Vice President for Student Affairs Ginger Ambler. “Just as we did on that fateful day in 2001, members of the College community will come together in the shadow of the Wren Building to be strengthened and to honor that which binds us as members of one human family.”
