Soldier gets recognition
Name engraved onto the Campanile
Published on Wed., February 9th, 2005
Rylan Howe
Jake Salaki, installations superintendent for Midland Marble and Granite, smooths the finish on the granite bearing the name of Second Lt. Raleigh Chase Bowlby Jr. Salaki installed the slab yesterday morning at the bottom of the middle column on the east wall of the Campanile.
Second Lt. Raleigh Chase Bowlby Jr.’s name was added to the Campanile yesterday. His name was left off the list about 55 years ago when the memorial was constructed.
The omission was first noticed in the 1960s when Kathy Booth, the daughter of Bowlby’s widow, attended a football game at Memorial Stadium. Mary Jane Cunningham, Bowlby’s widow, remarried after the war.
“I always knew of Raleigh, but didn’t dwell on it out of respect for my dad,” Booth said.
Booth and her husband visited the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C., in June. Booth saw Bowlby’s name and began to question why Bowlby wasn’t on the Campanile walls.
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“We always thought he just didn’t meet the criteria,” Booth said. “But seeing his name in Washington sparked an interest. We wanted to find out if he met the criteria or not.”
A call to University Relations confirmed that he did meet the criteria and that his name should have been among the other 276 soldiers.
Booth, who lives in Sterling, speculated that his name was left off because the University’s attempt at contacting family and friends of fallen World War II soldiers did not reach her mother in California.
Booth said she does not believe that Bowlby’s parents heard about it either.
“Our intention was just to find out if he qualified,” Booth said. “We wanted to see if they could just add his name to the archives. We are honored that they would honor Raleigh like that.”
Midland Marble and Granite of Independence, Mo., donated the material and installation services to the University to fix the omission.
“Compared to what he did, this is nothing,” said Bryan Caton, CEO of Midland Marble and Granite. “This is something we can give back to the family.”
Bowlby’s name is located at the bottom of the middle column of names on the east side of the Campanile.
The family will also receive a replica of the 2.5-by-23-inch piece of marble with Bowlby’s name engraved on it.
The Campanile was dedicated on May 27, 1951 to honor the soldiers who died in World War II.
A list of the other soldiers remembered on the east and west walls of the memorial is available at www.carillon.ku.edu.
Bowlby’s family will be invited to the University this spring to attend a dedication of the addition of his name on the memorial.
Bowlby enlisted in the Army in February 1941. He was only one semester away from graduating with a degree in business from the University, family members said. He was killed in action near Cassino, Italy, on April 8, 1944.
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