Memorials
Honoring those who served
UW-Platteville has a rich history of supporting student and alumni veterans stretching back to World War I. Eight permanent memorials, both on-campus and off-campus, serve as monuments to honor their service and serve as a reminder of their sacrifice for all current and future UW-Platteville students and anyone who visits campus.
Recognizing those who served and sacrificed for our nation in times of war keeps us mindful of the freedoms we enjoy. To ensure that their sacrifices are not forgotten, UW-Platteville will continue to honor those who stood proudly for their country to restore freedom around the globe.
Read more about the sites on campus where we remember our veterans. If you are visiting campus, this map will help you navigate to each memorial.
World War I Memorial at Rountree Hall
The Wisconsin Mining School World War I memorial is in the northeast corner of the former Wisconsin Mining School property, Rountree Hall. While the date of dedication is not known, the current memorial is the second to which the memorial plaque has been affixed. Originally, the plaque was mounted to a concrete mound topped with an artillery shell. The current memorial includes a star-shaped concrete base to which the plaque is attached, with a sundial in the center of the star. The plaque reads: “In memory of Frank Vivian Laughton, James Leslie Paull, William F. Weber, Jr., Graduates of the Wisconsin Mining School who served with honor during the World War 1914-1918, and who gave their lives that liberty might not perish.”
World War II Memorial in Memorial Park
The WWII Memorial is located in Memorial Park on the southwest end of campus, below the campus solar array. The original plaque, honoring the WWII fallen from the Platteville State Teachers College, was commissioned by the class of 1946, but never mounted. It wasn’t until 1988 that this plaque resurfaced, being returned to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville by a gentleman in Prairie Du Chien. In 1989, this plaque was mounted to a stone in Memorial Park. Shortly after the 1989 dedication, a man by the name of Joe Corbin, who was present for the 1989 dedication, returned to the University and asked to commission a plaque to also honor the WWII fallen from the Wisconsin Mining School. The second plaque was added to the memorial on September 19, 1992, at a rededication ceremony.
ROTC Memorial and Major Christopher Splinter Memorial
Memorials for the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps program and one honoring the life of Major Christopher Splinter, is located on the west end of the Pine Street sidewalk, between Warner Hall and Royce Hall.
UW-Platteville has a long history supporting and training America’s Armed Forces. This included a history of training the Student Army Training Corps as far back as 1918 at the Wisconsin Mining School, and more recently the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps, which was decommissioned in 1991.
Major Christopher Splinter
As a student at UW-Platteville, Christopher Splinter majored in Business Administration and joined the Army ROTC in 1986. In 1989, Splinter was commissioned in the Army Corps of Engineers, graduating from UW-Platteville in 1990. Splinter was one of the last graduates from the ROTC program at UW-Platteville. On December 24, 2003, while serving as an Army officer near Samarra, Iraq, Major Splinter made the ultimate sacrifice when the vehicle he was riding in was struck by an improvised explosive device.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The Vietnam Memorial is located near the flag poles outside of Ullsvik Hall. A dedication ceremony took place on Veterans Day, November 11, 2022.
In early 2020, Kolar connected with Dr. David Krugler, UW-Platteville professor of history, who happened to be teaching his Vietnam War history course that spring. Krugler then built a research assignment into his course. His students were able to participate in a conference call with Kolar to learn more about his goals and current research. The students visited the university archives and scanned indexes from past Pioneer yearbooks, which they then converted from PDFs into searchable text files. The files were used to match names from the yearbooks to those on the Vietnam Memorial Wall, which is available online. Dr. Arghya Das, a UW-Platteville assistant professor of computer science, coded a program to match the names to those on the wall. To date, twelve soldiers have been identified.
Mac Kolar, retired U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel
Telling the stories of soldiers killed in war started as a small, personal project for Mac Kolar, a 1969 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. About five years ago, the retired U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel began researching and writing about family members and residents of his hometown of Fennimore, Wisconsin. The efforts led him to connect with fellow alumnus Dr. Jim Lawton, a 1967 graduate of UW-Platteville and a former fraternity brother and teammate of Vasilios Demetris—one of the fallen soldiers Kolar was honoring. As Kolar and Lawton came to realize that no Vietnam War veteran memorial existed on campus—nor did a comprehensive list of students or alumni killed in action – the pair set out to change this. Through a collaborative endeavor that has spanned more than a year and included the help of faculty, staff and students across campus, they have now quadrupled the number of identified students and alumni, bringing them closer to their goal of memorializing the veterans on campus.
Other Campus Veterans Memorials
Other individual memorial markers can be found on the south side of the Center for the Arts, where trees are dedicated to WWI service members, who lost their lives in the war: Corporal Homer Grossman, Private Loren Peacock, and Sergeant Homer Parkinson. Originally dedicated in 1919 with three elm trees, which succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease in the 1960’s. Three new maple trees were planted in 2013 and the markers were found, replaced, and rededicated on June 8, 2013, by the Daughters of the American Revolution Fort Crawford Chapter.
UW-Platteville’s link to The Highground
The Wisconsin Vietnam Veterans Tribute, “Fragments,” began its physical life at UW-Platteville. Created by sculptor Robert Kanyusik, 1,250 members of the armed forces who lost their lives in Vietnam are immortalized through this memorial that was cast, bronzed, and built in the UW-Platteville Art Department in 1987. The memorial was later moved to The Highground in Neillsville, WI for dedication in 1988.
