Tower Garden Memorial -- University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX
N 30° 17.217 W 097° 44.377
14R E 621214 N 3351254
This somber memorial anchors the Tower Memorial Garden, which commemorates the victims who were killed on a horrifying summer day at the University of Texas
Waymark Code: WMTM9P
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/09/2016
Views: 2
On 1 August 1966, Charles Whitman killed his mother and wife before packing up an arsenal of weapons and ascending the UT Tower. After killing two Tower visitors and the receptionist at the Tower Observation Deck, he barricaded himself on the Observation Deck and rained bullets down on unsuspecting people below for an hour and a half, until he himself was killed by Austin Police Officer Houston McCoy.
That was the darkest day on the University of Texas campus. Until 1984, the UT Tower shooting was the worst mass shooting in American history. After 50 years the scars of that terrible day remain, in hearts and in stone.
There are semi-secret unpublicized places on campus where you can put your fingers in bullet holes left in stone by Whitman, and (on the Tower Observation Deck) by Officer McCoy. For those who know where (and what) they are, they are a reminder of tragedy. Mama Blaster, who attended UT in the 1980s, knows where those places are.
For almost 40 years UT struggled the unthinkable tragedy that unfolded on its campus. Yearly observations commemorated the tragedy, but nothing physical stood on campus.
Finally, in 1999 a small memorial plaque was unveiled in the shadow of the Tower, in an area dedicated as Tower Garden by the UT Turtle Pond.
By 2016, 50 years after the shooting, UT officials were ready to acknowledge the incident with a proper memorial. The monument consists of a rough cut piece of granite, smoothed on one side and inscribed with the names of those who died at Whitman's hands, as follows:
"INTERFECTUM AUGUST 1 1966
THOMAS AQUINAS ASHTON
DR. ROBERT H. BOYER
THOMAS FREDERICK EKMAN
MARK JEROME GABOUR
KAREN JOAN GRIFFITH
DAVID H GUNBY
THOMAS RAY KARR
MARGUERITE GABOUR LAMPORT
CLAUDIA RUTT
ROY DELL SCHMIDT
PAUL BOLTON SONNTAG
OFFICER BILLY PAUL SPEED
EDNA ELIZABETH ROSE TOWNSLEY
HARRY WALCHUK
KATHLEEN LEISSNER WHITMAN
MARGARET HODGES WHITMAN
BABY BOY WILSON
The University of Texas at Austin remembers with profound sorrow the tragedy of August 1, 1966. This space is dedicated as the Tower Garden, a memorial to those who died, to those who were wounded, and to the countless other victims who were immeasurably affected by the tragedy.
[on the granite bench]
The Tower Garden Memorial was made possible by Cook Walden funeral homes and cemeteries in honor of Mr. Charles R. Walden, Sr., and all those who served on that fateful day."
Disaster Date: 08/01/1966
Date of dedication: 08/01/2016
Memorial Sponsors: University of Texas, Cooke-Walden Funeral Home, Survivors
Disaster Type: Sociological
Relevant Website: [Web Link]
Parking Coordinates: Not Listed
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