The Eternal Spirit

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2004

ETERNAL SPIRIT THE

The Eagle A SPECIAL REPORT ■

Cover photo by Butch Ireland

Page 2

The Bryan-College Station Eagle

Thursday, November 18, 2004

LEGACY OF BONFIRE: THE DESIGN

Closing the circle, honoring a legacy

VOICES CAPTURED IN TIME ...

Nov. 18, 1999 Sophomore Diana Estrada was one of dozens of students helping to build Bonfire and was about 100 yards from the stack when it fell at 2:42 a.m.

“It just toppled over, and the wires snapped and the lights started sparking and going on and off,” she said. “We ran over there as fast as we could, and we could see legs sticking out and hear people screaming.”

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Sophomore Michael Guerra said he left the site for a few minutes, then returned to find that the structure had collapsed.

“People were running around calling people’s names and crying,” he said. “Other people were just like zombies.

They couldn’t believe this had happened.”

■

Eagle photo/Butch Ireland

The $5 million Texas A&M Bonfire Memorial was constructed at the spot where Bonfire collapsed Nov. 18, 1999. The accident killed 12 and injured 27.

Granite monument built to represent Bonfire tragedy

By BRETT NAUMAN Eagle Staff Writer

cates the Bonfire Memorial, built where the tradition for years burned with pride and in an instant ended with horror. t’s the tradition that, for many, The memorial will forever link the still symbolizes everything that is tradition to the tragedy of Nov. 18, great about Texas A&M University — the sheer commitment and spir- 1999, said George Rogers, director of the memorial and a professor of it that binds Aggies. landscape architecture.

For three months every fall, stu“This memorial will help people dents chopped down trees and wired understand why those 12 Aggies the logs together, working as a team were out on that stack at 2:42 a.m. to build the massive Bonfire. when it fell,” Rogers Through gallons of said. “They all undersweat, friendships “We knew from stood what the spirit were forged and leadof Bonfire was ers were born as the the start this was about.” school demonstrated something we could The $5 million its “burning desire” monument on to beat rival Univerput our heart and soul A&M’s Polosits Fields at sity of Texas in the into. The project just the spot where the 59annual football game. foot stack crumbled One morning five seemed right. as students worked years ago, 90 years of on the final stages of tradition came crashWe’re hoping the construction. A dozen ing down. Twelve memorial will touch rectangular portals Aggies who were and 27 granite blocks building the log people in many form the memorial’s structure lost their circular perimeter, lives when Bonfire different ways.” known as Spirit Ring, collapsed on Nov. 18, representing those 1999. Twenty-seven others were injured.

JEFF RUSSELL who were killed and injured in the worst The tragedy exactOverland Partners’ disaster to occur on ed a tremendous project architect for the the A&M campus. human toll in the few Within the 14-footTexas A&M Bonfire Memorial seconds it took the tall portals are 2 million pounds of bronze likenesses of logs to topple like the 11 students and one former stumatchsticks. It left a proud universident who died. Each portal opens to ty struggling to fill the void left by the center of the memorial and faces one of its most beloved traditions.

And it’s something Aggies say they the hometown of the individual it honors. always will remember.

As visitors step into each portal, Not long after the collapse, the they symbolically fill the void left by campus set about finding an approthe Aggie who died in the collapse, priate way to honor the victims, as well as the tradition’s legacy. Years Rogers said. Writings from each of planning and construction will Aggie and his or her family adorn culminate Thursday as A&M dedithe interior.

I

As day broke and word of the collapse spread, thousands of students flocked to the open fields around the site. The air was still, punctuated by whispers, sobs and sounds of rescue equipment. The quiet was the result of shock, respect for the dead and those whose fates were unknown, and the commands of rescuers trying to listen for survivors in the rubble.

Television broadcast trucks appeared seemingly from nowhere, and before long dozens packed into the parking lots nearest the construction site. In an eerie juxtaposition, a row of hearses waited a few hundred yards away for the next victim to be pulled from the pile of logs.

Elsewhere on campus, students walked solemnly from class to class.

“Texas A&M is known as one of the friendliest campuses, but it’s different today,” freshman Paige Mansfield said. “Everyone’s quiet. It’s creepy. Chilling, almost.”

Eagle photo/Butch Ireland

(Continued, Next Page)

The path leading to the Spirit Ring begins with a representation of the first Bonfire.

Eagle photo/Butch Ireland

The Bonfire Memorial is lighted around its perimeter at night with an amber glow.

The trip through the Bonfire Memorial begins at Tradition Plaza, the small area where visitors enter.

“The Last Corps Trip” — the poem read before Bonfire was lighted — is engraved on a plaza wall.

The plaza leads to a walkway that connects visitors to Spirit Ring. The path has 89 granite stones that represent each Bonfire burned since the tradition began in 1909.

The stone for the year 1963 is missing. Bonfire festivities were canceled that year after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

San Antonio-based design firm Overland Partners beat out 194 other competitors to win the contract for the memorial. Jeff Russell, a 1981 A&M graduate and the project architect, said the firm employs several Aggies who worked on Bonfire and passionately threw themselves into creating a winning memorial design.

“We knew from the start this was something we could put our heart and soul into,” Russell said. “The project just seemed right. We’re hoping the memorial will touch people in many different ways.”

The firm’s design team worked directly with family members of the Aggies killed in the collapse. Sculptor Erik Christianson used pictures to re-create the faces of the fallen Aggies for the portals, Russell said.

“One thing we heard from the families was, ‘We want this to represent our kids,’” Russell said of Overland’s meetings with the parents. “That inspired us. There’s no way you can’t be moved by that.”

The memorial is set to be formally unveiled Thursday during a 2:30 p.m. public ceremony marking the fiveyear anniversary of the collapse. But it already has affected those who visited it in recent weeks, Rogers said.

“The memorial means more to people than I ever could have thought

possible,” he said. “There’s so many hidden layers of meaning. It exceeds all my expectations.”

Most of the structure is granite.

Those areas represent the tradition of Bonfire, including the dedication, teamwork and leadership of workers who built it each year, Rogers said.

Bronze inside the portals and on each of the 27 granite stones represents the individuals killed and injured in the accident.

Kristen Unger, whose older sister Jamie Lynn Hand was killed in the collapse, said she appreciates that the memorial honors not only the tradition of Bonfire, but victims like her sister.

Unger’s husband, Bruce, also is recognized in the memorial. He was a Bonfire worker who broke several fingers and injured his ankle when he fell from the stack during the collapse, and his name is engraved in one of the 27 granite stones.

Texas A&M President Robert Gates said the memorial has a reverent feel to it.

“It’s a very quiet place almost in the middle of campus,” Gates said.

“It’s almost like being in church. As you approach it and see the whole thing from a distance, I think it’s awe-inspiring.”

Media from across the state are expected to descend on College Station for Thursday’s dedication, A&M officials said. What remains uncertain is how many current and former students will attend. The committee in charge of the dedication ceremony has estimated the crowd could swell to 40,000.

“I believe there will be a big crowd,” Rogers said. “It’s very important to Aggies. We’ll see how much on Thursday at the dedication.”

■ Brett Nauman’s e-mail address is bnauman@theeagle.com.

Thursday, November 18, 2004

The Bryan-College Station Eagle

Page 3

LEGACY OF BONFIRE: THE DESIGN

VOICES CAPTURED IN TIME ...

Two women, Miranda Adams and Jamie Hand, were among the 12 Aggies killed in the collapse, and another six female students were injured. It was the 20th year that women had taken part in building Bonfire.

“Women work just as hard as the men,” said senior Stephanie Laufer, a former Bonfire co-chair for Mosher residence hall on campus.

“We always wanted equality [at Bonfire]. Sometimes you have to take the consequences.”

■

‘I’m just really honored to have been a part of it. I’m always wanting my work to be the best it can be. This is one of the biggest things I’ve ever done.’

ERIK CHRISTIANSON

Most of the Aggie football players helped move huge logs away from the accident site as rescue workers searched for survivors.

“They support us, why not do it back? When it’s fourth-and-1, they’re rooting us on. Right now, we’re rooting them on and doing whatever we can to help,” junior linebacker Jason Glenn said.

Nov. 19, 1999

Bulverde sculptor who created the 12 bronze likenesses of the Bonfire victims

A VISION IN BRONZE Bulverde artist painstakingly re-created faces of 12 for memorial

By BRETT NAUMAN Eagle Staff Writer

he faces of the 12 Aggies whose lives were cut short by the Bonfire collapse five years ago remain etched in the mind of artist Erik Christianson.

The Bulverde sculptor spent the past year creating bronze likenesses of the 10 men and two women for Texas A&M University’s $5 million Bonfire Memorial. Family members of the fallen Aggies spent hours with Christianson recounting memories of those who were killed when the 59-foot tower of logs crumbled on Nov. 18, 1999, while under construction on campus.

“It was real personal,” Christianson said. “The stories were so tragic. These kids were just the cream of the crop. They all had so much going for them.”

Christianson, 40, was hired by San Antonio design firm Overland Partners to craft the sculptural portraits that are the focal points inside the 12 portals of the Bonfire Memorial.

The project was arduous, said Christianson, who has worked on dozens of monuments — primarily for churches and companies — in his 15 years as a professional sculptor.

“All the way around, this was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” Christianson said. “This was very important. It meant a lot to me, working with the families. But it was very challenging.”

He created a likeness of each Aggie with a clay mold, using photographs sent to him by their families.

Parents or other relatives then visited his studio to offer suggestions on ways to make the depiction more accurately reflect their loved one.

Giving the families final say on the sculptures made the project difficult and time-consuming, Christianson said. But it was only right to do so, he said.

“Sometimes the process would go real quick,” he said. “Some families

T

would stay for a while. I wanted people walking out of there happy. The reactions I’ve gotten so far have been good.”

It was while the families were at his studio that he learned about each Aggie. Parents spoke of their child’s dreams and recounted their favorite childhood stories.

For example, Walieta Kimmel told stories about son Lucas — an aspiring veterinarian — and his love for his dog, Maverick, Christianson said. The two were so inseparable that Christianson agreed with the mother that Maverick should appear with Lucas in his Bonfire Memorial portal.

The sessions with parents usually were emotional, and bringing up the memories often moved them to tears, Christianson said.

“I don’t know how they do it,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to handle it if I lost a child at that age. When they would just tell me their stories, it would kind of make me choke up.”

The clay sculptures were sent to Overland Partners to be cast in bronze after the families and Christianson came to agreement on the design.

The Bonfire Memorial is one of the most high-profile pieces Christianson has created in his career.

His body of work includes sculptures now on display across the nation. Most depict religious figures in churches. His next project will be creating “Our Lady of Flowers,” a design of the Virgin Mary in a field of flowers, for the San Fernando Cathedral in downtown San Antonio.

A sculpture of Texas legend Col. Juan Seguin in the town that bears his last name is another of Christianson’s popular works. Seguin was a prominent leader in Texas’ fight for independence from Mexico.

The artist also has created sculptures memorializing high-ranking figures at military institutions and corporate officials at private compa-

Special to The Eagle

Erik Christianson, who has been a professional sculptor and artist for 15 years, says he sat with the families of each of

the 12 Aggies killed in the Bonfire collapse to achieve the most realistic likenesses for the memorial.

nies. Few people can afford to hire him for private sculptures, Christianson said.

For the Bonfire Memorial, Christianson said he was paid $2,500 for each likeness — a total of $30,000. As difficult as the project was, Christianson said it was fulfilling, and he hopes it helps further establish him

as a professional sculptor.

“I’m just really honored to have been a part of it,” he said. “I’m always wanting my work to be the best it can be. This is one of the biggest things I’ve ever done.”

■ Brett Nauman’s e-mail address is bnauman@theeagle.com.

Many of A&M’s 43,500 students — joined by family members, friends and strangers in ongoing silent tributes at the site — fell back on their faith. Some knelt down in front of the police tape perimeter, where spontaneous shrines grew from flowers placed on the ground. Prayer cards were left, asking God to watch over those who died.

■ Since the fall semester began, it seemed, the Aggies had been forced to move from one tragedy to the next. The semester death toll was at 18 late Nov. 19 — an average of one student killed every 4 1/2 days since Aug. 31.

Two of five people killed in a September skydiving plane crash in Bryan were Aggies. In October, one A&M student was among six college students killed by a pickup when the driver fell asleep.

Three others were killed in separate car accidents, while another killed himself.

Eleven of the 12 killed in the collapse were students.

(Continued, Next Page)

Page 4

The Bryan-College Station Eagle

Thursday, November 18, 2004

LEGACY OF BONFIRE: THE FALLOUT AND THE FUTURE ‘[The designers] really treated it as a work of love.

And for that, I think we’re all grateful.’

VOICES CAPTURED IN TIME ...

As news of the Bonfire accident spread, A&M’s phone and computer systems were overwhelmed by messages from people all over the world.

By 5 p.m. Nov. 19, the front page of A&M’s Web site had been viewed more than 2 million times, officials said, up from 1.08 million hits Nov. 18 and 450,000 hits the day before.

■

Pinned to the ground by three massive logs, Alex Jones lay face down amid a pile of timber, keeping a single thought in his mind and heart: God was there.

“He is absolutely the only thing that will get us through,” the freshman said the day after the Bonfire collapse, recovering from cuts and bruises. “He was with me from the moment the Bonfire came crashing down on us. I might be a big guy, but I’m not strong enough to sustain what I did.

He did it.”

Jones was one of 27 Texas A&M University students injured in the school’s deadliest disaster, but he counted himself among the “so very lucky and blessed.”

■

Texas A&M University senior Jeff Whiting scrawled out a note and placed it amid a cluster of flowers near the Administration Building. Then, he slipped the thick, gold ring from his finger and laid it atop the small slip of paper.

His script read: “To our fallen Aggies, I want you all to wear my ring today since you who have passed away will never get to experience the joy and happiness I was fortunate enough to feel. I want you all to have my ring for awhile.

You will remain in our hearts forever. (signed) Jeff Whiting ’00” And then he walked away.

To the 12 lost members of the Aggie family, he offered his senior ring — the ultimate symbol of pride and achievement among A&M students.

(Continued, Next Page)

TIM KERLEE SR. Speaking about the Bonfire Memorial

FIRST IMPRESSIONS Victims’ families share their thoughts on the Bonfire Memorial A few family members of the 12 Aggies killed in the Bonfire collapse saw the memorial for the first time Wednesday, but most already walked through it when they came to campus a month ago for an informal gathering organized by Texas A&M officials. Several made the trip on their own. The following are their impressions. ★ Of the nine jurors who selected a design for the Bonfire Memorial, only one — Richard West — lost a child to the collapse.

The father of Nathan Scott West credited the artist who created the Aggies’ sculptures for the memorial as “extremely talented.”

The tough part for the family, he said, was choosing from a mountain of available material the letters and quotes that would accompany Scott’s likeness.

“What it does is it gives you a shadowy feeling of him, what kind of personality he was, what kind of person he was,” Richard said. “It’s more of an effort to transmit some little idea of what Scott was like to people who might come visit it in 20, 30 years.” ★ After a recent visit to the memorial, Jerry Ebanks said the monument honoring his son, Michael, was not what he expected.

“I think it’s great,” Jerry said.

“When we first saw the design, we were not too excited about it, but it is a lot more elaborate with all the Aggie symbolism, so we began to get real excited. It is quite a piece of art.” ★ Andrea Heard has been back to College Station only once since her son, Christopher, died in the Bonfire collapse.

Thursday’s dedication will be the first visit for her husband, Les, in five years. The Heards said it will be hard to return, but they are looking forward to taking their first in-person look at the memorial.

“We were impressed with the people who put it together,” Andrea said. “They were so sensitive to our feelings, and the sculptor did an awesome job. He really wanted to get it right.” ★ Jim Kimmel and his wife, Walieta, arrived in College Station on Wednesday with two of their older children and their families for the Thursday dedication honoring their son, Lucas.

Jim said he was impressed with the memorial when he saw it a few weeks ago.

“I think it is a wonderful thing,” he said. “It is hard to say what I like most. When you walk in there and someone was on the other side of it, it amplifies your voice, and it echoes like a chamber. It’s like you’re in a world all by yourself.” ★ Mike Self, father of Bonfire victim Jerry Don Self, said he had the chance to preview the memorial when he was in College Station for the Texas A&M-Clemson football game Sept. 18.

He said he liked the design and thought it was a fitting tribute to

Eagle photo/Butch Ireland

Andrea and Less Heard, who lost their son, Christopher, in the Bonfire collapse, were impressed by the work on the Bonfire Memorial. “They those who lost their lives.

“It’s for the memory of the kids; they needed to do it right for the kids,” he said. ★ Miranda Adams’ parents have embraced the memorial as something they say will honor their daughter as long as the bronze portrait of her stands on the grounds of her favorite university.

It was hard to include everything their 19-year-old daughter did to explain her to the world, father Kenny Adams said. He said he’s most pleased that her portrait shows her “wonderful smile and expressive eyes.”

“There was so much to talk about her, especially to put that into a bronze piece so that the reader can figure it out many years down the road,” Kenny said. “But it’s not hard to figure that out once you turn around and look at her portrait.” ★ Tim Sr. and Janice Kerlee said recently they wished the memorial had been something more traditional and more recognizably tied to Texas A&M, such as having all 12 in bronze carrying a log or linked arm in arm together.

But the Kerlees said the memorial that in part honors their son, 17year-old Timothy Kerlee Jr., still is beautiful.

“They really treated it as a work of love,” Tim Sr. said. “And for that, I think we’re all grateful.”

The couple worries that some of the symbolism — such as the stone steps that lead up to the memorial ring to stand in for the years of Bonfire — won’t be obvious to a first-time visitor. The bronze portrait also makes it hard to see what their

were so sensitive to our feelings, and [sculptor Erik Christianson] did an awesome job. He really wanted to get it right,” Andrea said.

Carolyn Adams wears a pin with her daughter Miranda’s picture in it.

Miranda was one of the 12 Aggies killed in the 1999 Bonfire collapse.

Eagle photo Butch Ireland

son really looked like, Janice Kerlee said.

“Some things just don’t translate,” she said. “But I think it’s as good as any memorial.” ★ A picture taken while Chris Breen was on a camping excursion is the one the family chose for the bronze relief sculpture. His smile shines through.

“The sculptor did a beautiful job with Chris,” his mother, Marian Breen, said proudly.

Knowing they weren’t coming to the memorial ceremony later in the month, Marian and husband John made the trip a few weeks ago. It was late in the afternoon on a Saturday when they quietly toured the

memorial alone.

“I thought on whole it was stiff,” Marian said. “There’s something foreboding about the memorial — maybe it’s just my take on it.

“At night, I’m sure it’s lovely with the lighting there to soften it and make it more mellow, more emotional,” she said.

One thing that visitors will not see at the memorial is a picture of Bonfire, though the entire theme is centered around A&M’s one-time most-revered tradition.

“I feel very positive about that,” Marian said. “It shouldn’t be about a Bonfire. It should be about these 12.

“The less said about a Bonfire, the better.”

★ Neva Hand said recently she has mixed feelings about the Bonfire Memorial, although she does think it’s a beautiful and symbolic work of art — something her daughter, Jamie Lynn Hand, an aspiring artist, would have appreciated.

While each of the 12 Aggies killed when Bonfire collapsed are honored, Neva said the memorial is more about honoring A&M’s 90-year tradition.

The idea of honoring the 12 seems somewhat strange, Neva said.

“My daughter is not some kind of hero. It’s not like she gave her life.

Their lives were taken by a freak accident,” she said. “I have to ask why is my child being memorialized.” ★ Neither Judi Frampton Hedstrom, who lives in New York, nor Richard Frampton, who lives in California, had seen the Bonfire Memorial before coming to College Station for the dedication ceremony.

At first, Judi had mixed feelings about the memorial honoring the 12 Aggies killed, including her son, Jeremy, because of its hefty price tag. Having lived and worked in a third-world country since her son’s death, she knew there were other things the money could be used for, she said.

But since then, she said, she has realized the benefit in having a place for her son’s words and memory to inspire other generations of Aggies.

“I’ve come around, and I see now that there’s real value in that,” she said.

Bonfire’s suspension has harmed traditions, some say

By GREG OKUHARA Eagle Staff Writer

Texas A&M University is defined by the many traditions that have emerged during its long history. But none seemed to match the sense of purpose and glory that stirred the Aggies each fall when the time for Bonfire approached.

Then came the 1999 collapse and subsequent suspension of the annual event. Now, some current and former students say the banishment of Bonfire from campus has had a far-reaching effect on many other traditions that bond Aggies.

The fallout, they say, is not positive.

Jill Taylor, a former student who now works on campus, is among those who believe some traditions have suffered as a result of Bon-

fire’s cancellation.

“Bonfire was one of the biggest foundations [of other traditions],” Taylor said.

“When you take that out, it makes the rest of the traditions as unstable as Bonfire was, so to speak.”

Taylor works as a department manager at the bookstore in the Memorial Student Center and said she has a good feel for the pulse of the student body. She said, for example, that when she walks around campus there are fewer “Howdy” greetings from students.

“It’s a feeling,” she said.

“It’s hard to put into words.”

Bonfire made the campus inclusive, she said. It didn’t matter if a student was in the Greek system, a dormitory resident or Corps of Cadets member, because students could take part by cutting

logs or serving snacks and soft drinks to workers.

“When you saw it burn, you wanted to say, ‘I was a part of that,’” she said.

Aaron Gregg, a junior, said the campus retains its friendly and kind nature, but there is a division among students who are fanatical about keeping the traditions going and the rest who don’t participate as much in those traditions.

“On campus, the community is very polarized,” said Gregg, who is a Fish Camp counselor.

He agrees with Taylor’s assessment that the absence of Bonfire is a likely cause for the shift in how the general student body feels about the school’s traditions.

“I don’t necessarily miss [Bonfire],” he said. “It definitely warranted [suspending

the event].”

Junior Scotty Schmidt also said Bonfire’s absence has hurt how students view the rest of the traditions because it was such a unifying presence for the campus.

“Traditions just aren’t as strong,” he said. “We lost ... our common celebration.”

Despite such sentiments, other students are determined to keep A&M’s traditions alive.

Senior Hayley Henderson, a third generation Aggie and Elephant Walk director, said she and her colleagues are hard at work every day to make sure the traditions don’t fizzle out. She thinks the traditions are a selling point to prospective students who want something more than a conventional education.

“The only reason I came

was for the tradition and culture,” Henderson said.

But she said she also believes the campus doesn’t participate in traditions as it once did. To an extent, Henderson said, not having Bonfire around hurts the other traditions.

But that doesn’t change the fact that A&M’s traditions are what set it apart from other schools, she said.

“Times change, but the heart remains the same,” she said.

Henderson said her resolve to keep traditions going at A&M remains strong.

“We want to look back at those traditions and see them continue and grow because of the heart we had,” she said.

■ Greg Okuhara’s e-mail address is gokuhara@ theeagle.com.

Thursday, November 18, 2004

The Bryan-College Station Eagle

Page 5

LEGACY OF BONFIRE: THE FALLOUT AND THE FUTURE

Courtroom battles over collapse loom

By CRAIG KAPITAN Eagle Staff Writer

First trial set to begin in March in Brazos County

Their names spread out over an entire page of the lawsuit — injured students, the families of some who were killed, a who’s who list of Aggie administrators and a handful of former student leaders.

Nearly 60 defendants, about a dozen plaintiffs and an army of lawyers have been entangled in litigation over the past few years as judges have been asked to assign responsibility and consequences for the Bonfire tragedy.

Now, five years after the annual tradition abruptly came to a halt following the deaths of 12 Aggies and the injury of 27 others, all sides are preparing for the final courtroom battle.

The crowds are expected to convene upon the Brazos County Courthouse in March — that is, unless the defense decides to appeal a pre-trial ruling or the plaintiffs decide to request a change of venue.

And there’s always a possibility of a settlement putting a halt to the process. Both sides are in court-ordered mediation that is being overseen by Deborah Hankinson, a former state Supreme Court justice.

But the plaintiffs are ready to go, Fort Worth-based attorney Darrell Keith said last week. University officials have declined throughout the lawsuit to comment on the proceedings.

“We’ve been on a fast track of trial preparation,” Keith said. “We have a powerful

case. I think the Aggie nation is going to be truly shocked when they learn what really happened.”

The movement of Bonfire victims or their families to file lawsuits started in March 2001, when Keith filed on behalf of Jacki Self, the mother of deceased student Jerry Don Self.

University leaders — from student red pots in charge of construction all the way up to former university President Ray Bowen — were responsible for the death of her 20-yearold son by not properly overseeing the event, the lawsuit contends.

“These defendants actively encouraged and enticed students and former students to work on the Bonfire stack while they turned a blind or consciously indifferent eye to the peril,” the lawsuit states, alleging that one reason it wasn’t stopped beforehand was because it had become such a great marketing tool for the school.

By the end of 2001, Keith’s clients also included the families of deceased students Christopher Lee Heard and Bryan Allan McClain, as well as two student survivors of the collapse. The family of Chad Powell also filed suit, along with John Comstock, the most severely injured of the survivors.

While filed separately across the state of Texas, the cases were consolidated and

sent to Brazos County in summer 2003. The county’s three district judges later decided to give oversight of the case to Steve Smith — the only one of the three who isn’t an Aggie.

“At its inception, the Bonfire stack consisted of little more than piles of wood and trash [but] over the years it evolved into a mammoth, complex and risk-significant structure,” Keith wrote in the lawsuit, explaining that the roughly 6,000 to 7,000 logs used in building Bonfire weighed more than eight Boeing 747 jumbo jets.

“The Bonfire had grown over the years from a simple structure that could be designed and built by TAMU students to a complex and risky structure that could not,” the lawsuit states.

Repeat appeals Brazos County isn’t the only place where lawsuits have been filed regarding the Bonfire collapse. Many of the same plaintiffs, along with three other families, have filed suits against A&M in federal court.

Although the case has been thrown out by an appeals court, there isn’t likely to be a definite conclusion anytime soon. Judges have offered several opinions about whether or not the case should continue, and each decision has been met with an appeal.

Written arguments for the latest appeal, filed by the plaintiffs, aren’t due until January.

“I expect that whoever loses [the next decision] will appeal,” said Fort Worthbased attorney Steve DeWolf, whose clients include the families of deceased student Lucas John Kimmel and alumnus Christopher Breen, as well as a student who was injured during the collapse.

While the state case deals with negligence under traditional Texas law, the federal suit involves the concept of state-created danger.

According to the plaintiffs, university officials broke federal law by creating a danger through their indifference in preventing the collapse. This last summer, a federal court in Galveston agreed there was evidence of state-created danger, but it ruled in the university’s favor after concluding that the doctrine wasn’t yet recognized by the court at the time of the collapse.

“They are denying that the law was in effect at the time Bonfire collapsed,” Keith said.

Another difference between the state- and federal-level lawsuits is who is being sued, DeWolf said. Student participants are not included.

“From a philosophical standpoint, [my clients] thought it was appropriate to sue the university and its officials because they’re the ones they felt were responsible,” he said.

‘Fatal tradition’ In addition to monetary

compensation, one of the main reasons for the suits, Keith said, is to seek an injunction against the yearly Bonfire event.

“We’re not seeking to prevent Bonfire being brought back, but we are seeking that a safe Bonfire be brought back if A&M decides to do so in the future,” he said.

Among the requirements requested by the plaintiffs is professional oversight by engineers — something that the tradition did have until three years before the collapse, when two unofficial faculty adviser positions were allowed to go vacant, the lawsuit states.

The school has proposed its own safety features, but “there is no guarantee” without a court mandate, Keith said.

In addition, he said, the safety measures the victims and their families are requesting “go a bit beyond” what the university has proposed. For instance, it addresses drinking and hazing, he said.

Given the culture surrounding Bonfire — the drive to make it bigger and bigger every year — there is a strong likelihood that the tradition would revert to its 1999 ways if left alone, Keith predicted last week.

“A&M has many great traditions, but unfortunately Bonfire turned out to be a fatal tradition,” he said.

■ Craig Kapitan’s e-mail address is ckapitan@theeagle.com.

Investigating commission felt ‘call to duty’

By HOLLY HUFFMAN Eagle Staff Writer

Committee seeks answers on Bonfire collapse

Allan Shivers Jr. isn’t quite sure why he remembers the precise term used to describe what caused the 1999 Bonfire to collapse.

The upper tiers of the 2 millionpound structure put too much pressure on the lower tiers, forcing the logs apart and causing the structure to crumble, Shivers said.

“It was a failure of hoop strength,” he said, effortlessly recalling the findings 4 1/2 years later. “For some reason, I remember that.”

Shivers, then chairman of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and owner of an Austin investment and consulting company, was one of five members of the Bonfire Commission. The independent panel was charged with determining why the massive log structure collapsed on the Texas A&M University campus during the early morning hours of Nov. 18, 1999.

That year’s Bonfire was one week from completion. It was set to burn on Thanksgiving night before the annual football game with the University of Texas.

Twelve Aggies were killed in the collapse, and 27 were injured.

“I happened to be in College Station on business the morning after the Bonfire collapsed,” Shivers said by phone last week from his Austin office. “I saw the expressions on students’ faces ... shock, sadness and various stages of just incomprehensible grief. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.”

Determining what caused the tragedy was a task unlike any other Shivers and his colleagues had been asked to tackle, he said. Other commission members were Veronica Kastrin Callaghan of El Paso, Hugh G. Robinson of Dallas, William E. Tucker of Fort Worth and Leo Linbeck, a Houston construction executive who chaired the group.

Their charge wasn’t to assess blame or to determine whether the beloved tradition should continue in future years. Their job simply was to determine how and why Bonfire collapsed.

“It was like a call to duty,” Callaghan said last week from her office in El Paso. “None of us knew

■ Nov. 21, 1999 — A&M President Ray Bowen lays the framework for a commission that will work to determine what caused the collapse. Bowen says the commission is “to satisfy itself that the truth about what caused the accident is known as far as it can be discovered and to report its findings and conclusions with recommendations for corrective actions, if warranted.”

■ Nov. 26, 1999 — University officials announce that Leo Linbeck Jr., the head of a large Houston construction company, has agreed to serve as chairman of the commission. “I feel a tremendous sense of responsibility and obligation to find the truth associated with this occurrence,” Linbeck says. “This undertaking dictates an open and totally transparent procedure.”

■ Nov. 30, 1999 — Linbeck chooses four fellow commission members: Veronica Kastrin Callaghan of El Paso, Hugh G. Robinson of Dallas, Allan Shivers Jr. of Austin and William E. Tucker of Fort Worth.

■ Dec. 3, 1999 — The commission meets for the first time and develops a list of 50 questions it wants answered, ranging from student leadership over Bonfire to the roles carried out

by A&M administrators and faculty.

■ Jan. 18, 2000 — A fourth and final consulting firm hired by the commission will examine if individuals or supervisors made mistakes in building the stack. Other firms will obtain pictures from past Bonfires; analyze the guy ropes and density and gaps between logs; create a 3-D animation of the construction sequence; measure, weigh and classify the logs; evaluate the soil; study the Centerpole of the stack; interview witnesses; and review thousands of documents related to the accident.

■ March 2000 — The commission asks A&M officials to double the investigation’s budget to $2 million and push back to May 1 the deadline for announcing its findings.

■ May 2, 2000 — The commission’s final report on the collapse blames structural failures, but also sharply admonishes generations of administrators for having “tunnel vision” and for allowing unqualified students to build the stacks. The 261-page report details how 12 Aggies were killed and 27 others injured when wires on the logs began breaking, support on one side shifted, guy wires snapped, massive logs fell into the gaps and the third- and fourth-level logs shifted. Thousands of logs crashed to the ground in a matter of seconds, crushing most of the victims.

Among the commission’s findings were these factors: the wiring of the logs provided insufficient binding strength and was the first component of Bonfire to fail; internal stresses were put on the stack due to aggressive wedging of the second stack of logs into the first stack, which created a prying effect between the logs and increased the tensile loading on the wires; and there should have been a cable around the first tier of logs.

Evidence showed that worker safety processes were either inadequate or not sufficiently enforced; however, they were not directly linked to the collapse. The enforcement track record of Bonfire safety programs was poor by any standard, though no evidence linked poor safety to the collapse, and there was a lack of a written Bonfire design or construction manual. Several theories about what caused the collapse are disproved: a weak Centerpole, soft soil, faulty guy ropes and impact from a crane at the construction site.

Staff report

where it was going to take us.”

The task was daunting. There were no specific plans or blueprints for the structure because all designs were passed down orally, commission members recalled. The group hired investigators, consultants and engineering firms, and they relied heavily on computer models and engineering studies.

Five months and $1.8 million later, the commission’s 261-page final report blamed the deadly collapse on structural failures and criticized generations of A&M administrators for “tunnel vision,” or cultural bias,

when reviewing Bonfire.

“We called it tunnel vision or group think, which is a bigger concept,” Callaghan said. “It’s a psychological concept.”

The commission report said tunnel vision prevented administrators from taking steps to correct potential dangers in how Bonfire was built. Since May 2000, when the report was released, university officials say they have worked to ensure long-standing traditions don’t take priority over safety.

A&M President Robert Gates said increased communication between

the academic and administrative sides of campus has been a key step in eliminating tunnel vision among student leaders and university officials.

Before the collapse, the two divisions acted nearly independently of one another, Gates said during a recent interview. After some administrative reshuffling, both are overseen by the executive vice president and provost, David Prior.

“Now the executive vice president and provost is really the chief operating officer of the university,” Gates said. “He is able to coordinate their work and bring them together, bring about a level of communication across the administrative divisions and colleges that I think has not taken place.”

Whether the 90-year-old Bonfire tradition should ever return to campus was not a decision for the commission to make, Shivers and Callaghan said.

Other universities across the country have bonfire traditions, though they are not nearly as large as the Aggie Bonfire was, Shivers said. And students at many colleges, particularly military academies, engage in high-risk behavior, he noted. Freshman cadets at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy steer ships, and roughly one-third of the students at the Air Force Academy skydive, he explained.

The commission member said he has a personal theory about Bonfire and its collapse — though it isn’t supported by any hard evidence.

Shivers said he thinks order at the site slowly eroded over recent decades as fewer students working on Bonfire were members of the Corps of Cadets. Until the 1960s, Texas A&M students were required to be in the Corps.

“There was a discipline within the Corps of Cadets and a command structure that transferred itself to the construction of the Bonfire,” Shivers said. As the Corps members began making up smaller percentages of the student population, he said, “you lost that inherent command structure.

That’s very hard to establish those lines of command and responsibility and organization.”

■ Holly Huffman’s e-mail address is hhuffman@theeagle.com.

Risk assessment plays prominent role in student activities

By BRETT NAUMAN Eagle Staff Writer

After the 1999 Bonfire collapse, Texas A&M University administrators were faulted for not having policies in place to limit risks at the student-run event.

Aggies building the 59-foot, 2 million-pound structure of logs weren’t required to follow university-authorized guidelines. They simply relied on knowledge handed down each year by the upperclassmen leadership.

Oversight of student activities is much different five years after the worst-ever campus tragedy, A&M officials say. In fact, the university is considered a national

leader in eliminating potential dangers at student-run events, said Tom Reber, interim assistant vice president for student affairs.

In the years since the collapse, A&M has adopted aggressive measures designed to limit the risks taken by student organizations. The process — referred to as risk management — requires forward thinking to identify and address potential hazards before they occur, Reber said.

The university created a risk management office within the Department of Student Activities. Three employees are devoted to working with student organizations to ensure campus events are

“If any positives came out of [the Bonfire collapse], I’d say [risk assessment] is the one.”

TOM REBER Interim assistant vice president for student affairs at Texas A&M safe, Reber said.

The office helps students make educated decisions in planning activities, said A&M staff member Matt Fry, program coordinator for student risk management services.

Student organizations with the most liability work closest with A&M officials, Fry

said. Fish Camp, Big Event, Aggie Wranglers, Ross Volunteers, CARPOOL and the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band are a few of those groups.

Each organization has a unique set of risks. Fish Camp requires busing 800 incoming freshmen at a time to an East Texas conference facility. Members of CARPOOL drive fellow students home from bars and parties to reduce drunken driving.

And, each student organization has an officer who works with the administration to assess and reduce risk, Fry said.

The process has moved beyond student organizations with the recent creation of the Office of Risk Manage-

ment & Safety, Fry said. The office addresses risks of other campus activities, beyond those run by students.

“Risk management” is a buzz phrase at colleges throughout the nation, and A&M’s approach has been copied by other institutions in the five years since Bonfire fell, Reber said.

He has spoken to other campuses about the tough lessons A&M learned following the tragedy to persuade them to adopt risk management policies.

“If any positives came out of Bonfire, I’d say this is the one,” Reber said. “We would’ve gotten to where we’re at eventually, but not as fast.”

VOICES CAPTURED IN TIME ...

“When I was a freshman, all I could think about was getting that ring,” Whiting said. “When I heard stories of those kids who died, I saw their friends and family saying how they wanted to be an Aggie as long as they could remember.

“I thought some way, somehow, maybe they could get the same feeling I had from that ring.”

Nov. 20, 1999

A 30-year veteran agent of the FBI, Bob Wiatt has been at both ends of a bullet. He’s chased down murderers, interrogated evil and helped resolve one of America’s bloodiest prison sieges.

But nothing in his career, which includes almost 18 years as director of security at Texas A&M University, could have prepared him for the collapse of Bonfire.

“This was the most massive loss of life I’ve seen at one time in my 48 years of wearing the badge,” Wiatt said. “It probably hit me harder than any other single event in my career.”

Nov. 22, 1999

A scar on his stomach and a few scrapes were the only visible reminders of the accident that claimed the lives of J.J. Washam’s roommate and 11 other Aggies when he was released from St. Joseph Regional Health Center.

As Washam was escorted out of the hospital by his parents and about a dozen friends, he recalled the events of the night. As a result of his injuries, he lost his kidney and spleen.

He was wiring logs to each other on the second stack of Bonfire when the pile of logs began to shift, he said.

“I remember it moving and I knew it was coming down,” he said. “I actually remember falling from that stack. I blacked out a couple of times.”

Washam said he would like to see Bonfire continue.

“Everybody that died would want it to keep going,” he said.

(Continued, Next Page)

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The Bryan-College Station Eagle

Thursday, November 18, 2004

LEGACY OF BONFIRE: A WALK THROUGH THE MEMORIAL

Thursday, November 18, 2004

The Bryan-College Station Eagle

LEGACY OF BONFIRE: A WALK THROUGH THE MEMORIAL

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The Bryan-College Station Eagle

Thursday, November 18, 2004

LEGACY OF BONFIRE: A COMMUNITY IN MOURNING

Spirit of caring shined brightly VOICES CAPTURED IN TIME ...

The Arizona Republic newspaper retracted an editorial cartoon that compared the Aggie Bonfire tragedy to the 1993 Branch Davidian inferno and the murder of a black man in Jasper.

Texas A&M President Ray Bowen later would refuse a $10,000 peace offering from the newspaper, saying “it would do violence to our ethical standards to accept it.”

Nov. 25, 1999

Tens of thousands of silent mourners lighted candles near the Bonfire site in honor of the 12 Aggies who died after the stack of logs crumbled.

The vigil, and Yell Practice immediately after, replaced what would have been the school’s 90th Bonfire, which represents the students’ burning desire to defeat the University of Texas.

“There’s still fire here tonight ... there’s still a joining of spirit,” said former student Todd Helms. “That’s the way the people who died would have wanted it to be.”

■

University officials estimated at least 40,000 people circled the police-tape perimeter where Bonfire stood before its collapse a week earlier.

Former President Bush and his wife, Barbara, as well as Texas Gov. George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, were among those who attended the vigil.

As the sun set, people began lighting their candles and the crowd grew silent.

Pinpoints of flickering light blanketed the site, illuminating the area where many of the estimated 5,000 logs that made up the stack before its collapse still remained.

During Yell Practice, in contrast to the vigil, students applauded and whooped as the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band played, Aggie football coach R.C. Slocum spoke, and the Yell Leaders led the crowd in traditional yells.

(Continued, Next Page)

In A&M’s hour of need, a community responded without hesitation

By SOMMER HAMILTON Eagle Staff Writer

t. Randy McGregor, a member of the Bryan Fire Department’s technical rescue team, only could share his horror — with a quiet “Oh my God” to his wife — when his pager sounded just after 2:42 a.m.

Nov. 18, 1999.

“Bonfire collapsed. Please respond. 20 to 30 people trapped,” the message read.

But McGregor — just like the more than 225 rescuers and first responders who eventually answered that call over the 24 hours that followed — would rely on his training to help push those emotions aside as he arrived at the Texas A&M Polo Fields. There, beyond the hurried figures running past the pulsing lights of emergency vehicles, McGregor saw what would become synonymous with Aggies over the next few weeks — a collapsed stack of 7,000 or so twisted logs and pain on the faces of everyone.

And from the surrounding area McGregor and others witnessed a kind of charity that became synonymous with the Bryan-College Station community. No calls were made, but the images flashing across television screens across the region sent the message loud and clear: Whatever you have to offer, bring it. Spiritual guidance or tangible items or just a ride. Simple gestures meant so much too so many.

So ministers and counselors showed up to aid the grieving, equipment never requested made its way to the scene, water and other drinks turned up for workers and the thousands of students who had gathered, unwilling to leave until the last log was removed. Boxes filled with sweaters and sweatshirts arrived to warm the cool chill that had set in.

Cell phone companies handed out phones to the thousands of students who waited for news of the recovery efforts at the site, telling them to call their parents to let them know they were OK. Thousands in Bryan-College Station not directly involved in the rescue poured in with all types of support, including sending flowers to the families anxiously waiting at St. Joseph Health Center in Bryan and College Station Medical Center.

No Bonfire would burn

L

Eagle file photo/Dave McDermand

A group of Bryan fire and rescue personnel take in the scene of the 1999 Bonfire collapse a day after the stack fell. that year. A tradition that brought students, alumni and the community together was replaced in the fall of 1999 with a bond formed through adversity, mourning and now, five years later, the heralding 12 lives.

“We’d never been exposed to anything like this before,” remembered McGregor, now assistant chief.

Emergency crews from Bryan, College Station, Texas A&M University and Brazos County spent the day carefully pulling logs one-byone from the crumpled stack. Hundreds of others provided support service at area hospitals, emergency and operating rooms and at the emergency operations center opened just after 3:30 a.m. across Texas Avenue from the collapse site.

So much food came that some donations had to be turned away, said College Station Fire Department spokesman Bart Humphreys, who throughout that fateful day gave updates on the death toll.

“After the community realized this was what had actually happened, everybody wanted to help.”

Humphreys said. “We expected the community to be behind the effort, but nobody could have imagined

the quality and quantity of that support.”

Portable toilets were brought to the site for the rescuers, and a command post complete with a tent was erected at dawn while the rescuers worked the harrowing scene. It was under that tent that emergency crews would meet every few hours to update their progress and share resources, and outgoing workers would meet with counselors before they left the scene and went home to their families.

Crews crawled into the twisted logs early that morning to release those who were easily accessible, tangled in ropes and hidden in voids beneath the tumbled stack of logs. They then listened with high-tech sensors for survivors who might be trapped beneath the logs, the entire site falling silent by mid-morning after the last survivor, John Comstock, was pulled from the wreckage.

Bonfire workers and students who never before had lifted a log, along with A&M football players, helped carry of logs one by one as the stack was dismantled.

A&M engineering professors guided the removal of ill-balanced logs as workers strad-

dled lumber to cut wire ties that held some together in lose formation. A Huntsville logger brought in a special crane that could delicately lift logs.

It was an unusual situation, one never encountered before and one that would become a case lesson for emergency management teams across the country.

“It was a life-and-death game of pick-up sticks,” Bryan Fire Chief Mike Donoho said. “If you move log A, what’s going to happen to the rest of the logs and who could be underneath?”

McGregor recalled that as bodies were found in the stack, the firefighters and workers — which by afternoon included members of the urban rescue squad Texas Task Force One — would form a human wall around the area to protect each students’ dignity. By late morning, worried family members started to arrive at the scene where thousands of students had gathered quietly to watch, pray and wait.

By nightfall, blankets and jackets arrived by the truckload at the Polo Fields. Batteries arrived in boxes for flashlights and electric equipment.

The community responded practically and helpfully

with donations coming together during the area’s most significant time of need to show a bond of caring with one another and the outside world, College Station City Manager Tom Brymer said.

Residents and students grieved for the 12 killed and 27 injured by pouring by the thousands into Reed Arena that week for a memorial service that changed for many the meaning of the song “Amazing Grace” as the crowd spontaneously sang the spiritual.

Hundreds of thousands gathered at the Polo Fields, forming a sea of candles on the Thanksgiving night Bonfire was to have burned.

“The community was under a spotlight in the midst of a terrible adversity,” said Brymer, who helped lead efforts at the emergency operations center set up in a building neighboring City Hall. “While we showed we were human and in pain, we showed we could come through that adversity.

“Until you go through something like this, you can’t understand how big that spirit of caring is.”

■ Sommer Hamilton’s e-mail address is shamilton@ theeagle.com.

‘It was a terrible occasion, yet the outreach of faith was a sublime anchor to so very many students.’

THOMAS MCMULLIN Director of the College Station Latter-day Saints Institute of Religion

A painful lesson in life Tragedy led to religious reflection

By MELISSA SULLIVAN Eagle Staff Writer

ather Michael Sis said the most important lesson the Bonfire tragedy taught the world is this: Life is short, and it is valuable.

“Remember that you are still alive,” said Sis, who is pastor at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, which three of the 12 killed in the collapse attended. “God still has good work for you to do on this earth.

Ponder how fragile and precious the gift of life is.”

In the months following the collapse, Thomas McMullin, then the president of the Campus Ministry Association, said he often referred to a statement from a former church leader, Spencer Kimball, when explaining to students what happened early that November morning.

“Could the Lord have prevented these tragedies? The answer is yes. The Lord is omnipotent, with all power to control our lives, save us pain, prevent all accidents … save us from labor … and

F

even death if he will. But he will not.”

McMullin, who now serves as director of the College Station Latter-day Saints Institute of Religion, said students turned to their faith for answers as to why the lives of 12 Aggies were taken.

“It was a terrible occasion, yet the outreach of faith was a sublime anchor to so very many students,” he said. “My respect for these ministers only deepened as I felt their love and concern, regardless of denomination, for families, friends and others who had been so profoundly affected by this sudden tragedy.”

One lesson he discussed with students was the importance of life and living it free from regret, McMullin said.

“We were enveloped in deep reflection on the fragile nature of life,” he said. “We shared in the grief and were moved by the huge outpouring of love and unity that stirred from the very heart and soul of Aggieland. But my students’ ability to cope with such a profound event was

Eagle file photo/Dave McDermand

Huge ribbons adorn A&M United Methodist Church in College Station after the 1999 Bonfire bolstered by the knowledge provided by our religion.”

Father Dean Wilhelm, pastor at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in College Station, was a volunteer police chaplain at the time of the accident. He was called out to the Polo Fields about 15 minutes after the stack collapsed.

Upon arriving at the site, Wilhelm said he could hear a voice within the mangled logs

collapse. Congregants from around the Brazos Valley mourned the loss of lives.

of the stack. Moments later, he said he could no longer hear it, and he knew a life had been taken right in front of him.

“I think at that age group it is easy to think you are invincible,” Wilhelm said. “Something like this really brings home how fragile human life is.”

On Sunday, Wilhelm said he touched on the upcoming five-year anniversary of the

collapse by asking his congregation to question all the bad things in their lives.

“A failed relationship may be the end of the world, but when you compare it to this, it is a question of perspective,” he said. “In the grand scheme of things, it’s a drop in the bucket.”

■ Melissa Sullivan’s e-mail address is msullivan@ theeagle.com.

Thursday, November 18, 2004

The Bryan-College Station Eagle

Page 9

LEGACY OF BONFIRE: A COMMUNITY IN MOURNING ‘It’s a very impressive collection. It’s a collection the community can look at and see how A&M pulled together.’

PATRICIA CLABAUGH

VOICES CAPTURED IN TIME ...

Curator for the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M University

At the conclusion of yell practice, the lights dimmed and a cannon fired 12 times, in honor of each of the victims. The football players later came onto the field for the playing of the Aggie War Hymn and then hugged several people on the sidelines who were injured when Bonfire collapsed.

Nov. 26, 1999

Eagle file photo/Dave McDermand

Many students laid flowers, handwritten notes, photos and other mementos at the site of the 1999 Bonfire collapse.

A spontaneous outpouring of grief Archivists preserving mementos left at makeshift shrine for Bonfire victims

By GREG OKUHARA Eagle Staff Writer

exas A&M University professor Sylvia Grider specializes in the study of what she calls “spontaneous shrines.”

So when a shrine evolved only several hundred yards away from her office after the 1999 Bonfire collapse, she felt compelled to document and preserve the items left by visitors to the site of the tragedy.

The orange plastic fencing used to block off the site quickly turned into the backdrop for a makeshift memorial where a grief-stricken community could pay respects to the 12 Aggies who died. Mourners left flowers, crosses, handwritten notes, photos, Corps of Cadets memorabilia and much more along the perimeter.

Grider, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, and her colleagues collected about 5,000 items from the site about a month after the accident. Their efforts to preserve the artifacts became the Bonfire Memorabilia Collection Project, and the work continues today.

Each artifact left at the memorial was the manifestation of a person’s feelings, Grider said in a recent interview.

“It appears what’s going on is people are expressing their private grief in a public place,” she said.

Grider is a folklorist and has studied spontaneous shrines across the United States, particularly roadside crosses that memorialize victims of car accidents.

After Bonfire collapsed and people began leaving mementos at the orange fencing, Grider offered her services to help collect and preserve the items. Student leaders wanted to make sure the memorial items were saved, but they didn’t have the expertise. Grider stepped in, and the Bonfire memorabilia project began.

With the help of Patricia Clabaugh, curator for the Department of Anthropology, Grider and student volunteers began collecting and documenting the items left at the Bonfire site. They divided the fence into 10-meter sections and carefully gathered everything — no matter how small or seemingly insignificant.

Clabaugh said it is believed to be the only spontaneous shrine that was systematically and fully collected.

“The reason we collected everything was because we weren’t smart enough to make the decision [of what to collect and what not to collect],”

T

Eagle photo/Dave McDermand

Patricia Clabaugh (left) and Sylvia Grider stand among hundreds of carefully archived boxes containing items left at the shrine that sprang up at Bonfire collapse site. The boxes are stored on camshe said. “There’s no sense in throwing something out in the beginning and to find out later that it had some connection.

“As far as we’re concerned, everything was sacred.”

Each item left by mourners at the makeshift memorial has a story, Clabaugh said.

“It’s an emotional thing,” she said.

“I can read the same passage three months later and get choked up.”

Grider said the memorial was a typical spontaneous shrine, like those that appeared after the shootings at Columbine High School, the death of Princess Diana and the Oklahoma City bombing.

“It’s one of the more interesting things in modern cultural practices,” she said.

Among items left at the Bonfire site were Aggie boots, Corps brass, 12th Man towels and sets of grodes and pots, the clothing worn by Bonfire workers. Some people left their Aggie rings with notes saying the 12 who were killed could borrow the

pus in the Texas A&M University Archaeology Building. Clabaugh is holding a poster made by elementary school students bearing messages of condolence for the victims and their families.

cherished possessions.

Organic items, such as clothing and paper, suffered the most damage from the monthlong exposure to the elements. Grider said the items sat through rain, sleet, wind and sun, and the process of cleaning and stabilizing the memorabilia is ongoing.

The items were dried in a local warehouse, and contaminants such as mud and grass were brushed off.

Then they were placed in plastic bags and boxes and are stored in a controlled-environment room in the Anthropology Building to prevent further damage.

“The enemies of artifacts are humidity and light,” Grider said.

She and Clabaugh now are cataloging the items, a process that includes taking digital photos and measurements, assigning bar codes and recording descriptions of each item, and noting where the items were located.

The documentation of the memorabilia will help researchers accurately recreate what the memorial looked

like using a computer-generated presentation.

People who left items at the Bonfire site can help the researchers by e-mailing them the story behind their contributions. More information can be found online at http://bonfire.tamu.edu/beam.

Although there are no concrete plans to display the preserved memorabilia, Grider said the collection may be part of a rotating exhibit at the visitors center planned to be built at the permanent Bonfire Memorial.

Clabaugh said she and Grider and the rest of the staff have worked hard to properly preserve the items and would enjoy the opportunity to display them for visitors.

“It’s a very impressive collection,” she said. “We’re very proud of it and have learned a lot from it. It’s a collection the community can look at and see how A&M pulled together.”

■ Greg Okuhara’s e-mail address is gokuhara@theeagle.com.

AGGIES INJURED IN THE 1999 BONFIRE COLLAPSE The 27 students injured in the collapse include: Nate Atkinson Dominic Braus Jennifer Calaway

John Comstock William “Bill” Davis Clayton Frady Leslie Graham Lanny Joe Hayes Will Harlan

Britt Henley Caleb Hill Chad Hutchinson Jody Jacobs Paul “Alex” Jones Brandon Allen Jozwiak

John Kramer William Lyckman Amy McLeod Mandy Nakai Matthew Robbins Holly Rotenberry

Lauren Scanlan Milton “Chip” Thiel Bruce Unger J.J. Washam Jeremy Woorley Derek Woodley

The decades-old rivalry between Texas A&M University and the University of Texas was tempered with respect and friendship Nov. 26, as the Aggies upset the Longhorns 20-16 at Kyle Field.

“There’s not the same hatred,” said Ben McHenry, a junior in A&M’s Corps of Cadets. “We’re all just here to watch football.”

That camaraderie shined when Texas’ band played “Amazing Grace “at halftime in tribute to the 12 Aggies who died when Bonfire collapsed.

It burned brightly from two ribbons — one Aggie maroon, one Longhorn orange — that a young fan pinned to her shirt in remembrance of the tragedy.

Other students wore single white ribbons, the one color shared by both schools.

“I think the relationship has forever changed,” A&M student body president Will Hurd said after the game.

“We will always be — and should always be — rivals on the field, but friends off.”

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The Bryan-College Station Eagle

Thursday, November 18, 2004

ETERNAL SPIRIT: HISTORY BEHIND THE TRADITION

Key dates in the evolution of Bonfire Early Bonfires were little more than piles of wood and trash that Aggies “acquired” from areas near campus. Complexity increased over time.

Centerpoles were introduced in the 1940s and were used in every design until the 1999 Bonfire.

By the late 1970s, the stack took on a wedding-cake design, which continued through 1999.

Since the 1980s, all Bonfires also had been 60 to 80 feet tall, made of six tiers bound by wire, built around a two-part spliced centerpole and surrounded by four perimeter poles with guy ropes. A completed Bonfire could weigh more than 2 million pounds.

1909

1935

The first Bonfire is built.

Texas A&M decides to take charge of Bonfire after a farmer’s barn is “acquired.”

1928 First known photo of Bonfire taken.

Source: Bonfire commision report, Texas A&M University

1963

1955

1946

1943

Bonfire is built but not lighted because of President Kennedy’s assassination.

Bonfire is moved from Simpson Drill Field to Duncan Field.

The first time a centerpole is used. In 1947, the first spliced center pole is used.

The first all-log Bonfire is built.

1967

1969

1970

1984

“Red pots” take over control of Bonfire’s construction from yell leaders.

The tallest Bonfire — standing 109 feet, 10 inches high — is built.

This picture is believed to be of that Bonfire.

A&M limits the size of Bonfire to 55 feet high and 45 feet wide.

During the 1970s, Bonfire started to take on the “wedding cake” shape. The 1984 Bonfire illustrates the design.

1999

1999

On Nov. 27, construction executive Leo Linbeck Jr. agrees to A&M President Ray Bowen’s request to serve as chairman of the commission investigating the collapse.

On Nov. 18, the Bonfire structure collapses.

Twelve are killed, and 27 are injured. A candlelight vigil is held for the victims on Nov. 25.

1994 Bonfire shifts and starts to lean. The structure is torn down and rebuilt in time to light the night before the game.

2000

2000

2000

John Comstock, the last victim pulled from the collapsed stack and the most critically injured, goes home from the hospital on April 18.

On May 2, the Bonfire Commission report blames structural failures and tunnel vision for the collapse.

On May 31, the A&M Faculty Senate urges an end to Bonfires.

2001

2000

2000

The first lawsuit is filed in March by the family of one of the victims. Five other families and several of the injured eventually do the same.

A memorial service is held at 2:42 a.m. on Nov. 18 — the time of the 1999 Bonfire collapse.

On June 17, A&M President Ray Bowen suspends Bonfire until 2002.

2002

2003

2004

On Feb. 4, President Bowen shuts down plans for a redesigned Bonfire.

The largest off-campus bonfire built since the collapse burns in rural Brazos County.

On Nov. 18, the $5 million Bonfire Memorial is dedicated on the site where the 12 died.

Eagle graphic

Thursday, November 18, 2004

The Bryan-College Station Eagle

Page 11

LEGACY OF BONFIRE: IN PHOTOGRAPHS

Capturing tragedy

a

The outpouring of grief and sorrow following the Bonfire collapse produced countless memorable and moving images. Photographs snapped after the tragedy often revealed stories and emotions that words could not adequately convey. Years later, those images carry the viewer back to a time when the community mourned and came together in the face of unspeakable loss.

Eagle file photo/Dave McDermand

Twelve crosses were placed near the Bonfire site shortly after the collapse to represent the 12 Aggies who were killed.

Before dawn on the morning of the collapse, students mill around the collapse site, lit by searchlights.

Rescue workers sent students outside the perimeter of the Bonfire construction site.

Eagle file photo Butch Ireland

Eagle file photo/Butch Ireland

Eagle file photo/Butch Ireland

Eagle file photo/Dave McDermand

Eagle file photo/Dave McDermand

Above: Brian Gamble celebrates after recovering a fumble near the end of the fourth quarter to help seal A&M’s 20-16 victory over Texas on Nov. 26, 1999. Above left: Chad Hutchinson, surrounded by notes from wellwishers, suffered a collapsed lung and facial fractures in the accident. Left: Jayme Speer whoops it up with tens of thousands of other Aggies at Midnight Yell Practice a week after the collapse. The yell practice replaced the one traditionally held before Bonfire was lighted.

Above: Kristin West, sister of Bonfire victim Nathan Scott West, attends a memorial ceremony on the one-year anniversary of the collapse. The rainy ceremony was held at the exact time Bonfire fell.

Below: A small shrine bearing the date of the disaster lies outside the west fencing of the collapse site the day after the accident.

Texas A&M student Jeff Whiting left his Aggie Ring in front of the flagpole of the Administration Building on the A&M campus on the day after the tragedy.

It was part of a shrine that grew there throughout the day.

Eagle file photo/Butch Ireland

Eagle file photo Butch Ireland