Three stones bearing the names of Clemson alumni who died while performing their military duties will be added to the Scroll of Honor during a Memorial Day ceremony at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 29.
Student Services Program Manager Laura Kinard will share her reflections on Memorial Day before the U.S. flag is lowered to half-staff. The stone dedication will take place after the playing of Taps.
The Scroll of Honor is the centerpiece of Memorial Park, which sits directly across from Memorial Stadium. It is a raised barrow, or burial mound, ringed by stones that have the names and class year of each Clemson alum who gave the Ultimate Sacrifice. The names are engraved in the stones in random fashion, just as service members fall on the battlefield. The three alumni being honored Sunday were discovered through meticulous research, and their addition will bring the total number of engraved stones to 497.
The three men being honored with stones are:
- Capt. Lewis Anderson Page Jr., who attended Clemson in 1941-1942, served as a B-17 Flying Fortress navigator during World War II and as a pilot with the 18th Fighter Bomber Group in the Korean War. He died on June 20, 1953, when the Air Force T-33 jet he was piloting crashed at the airport in Pittsburgh.
- Lt. Wilfert O’Dell Davis Jr., who also attended Clemson in 1941-1942, served in the Army Air Corps as a P-51 Mustang instructor. Davis was en route to the Overseas Replacement Depot in Kearns, Utah, when the Army C-47 transport plane he was on crashed near Goodland, Kansas, killing him and 13 other servicemen on July 18, 1946.
- Lt. Howard Dixon Ulmer Jr., who attended Clemson in 1961-1962, served in Vietnam as a Rotary Wing Aviation Commander with the 1st Aviation Brigade. On October 3, 1966, the UH-1D helicopter he was commanding encountered severe weather and crashed while en route to a base camp, killing Ulmer and the other occupant.
The ceremony is being hosted by The Clemson Corps, with military honors executed by the Clemson Pershing Rifles.
