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February 16, 2009, 11:00 AM ET
Northern Illinois U. Unveils Memorial to 5 Killed in Cole Hall Shootings
A new garden will serve as a memorial to five people killed by a gunman at Northern Illinois U. a year ago. (Northern Illinois U. images)
On the one-year anniversary of the shootings in Cole Hall that took the lives of five people, Northern Illinois University unveiled a design for a memorial garden that will be constructed just east of the building.
In the garden, which will be surrounded by dawn-redwood, white-oak, and evergreen trees, a walkway will lead past a curved, 40-foot-long wall with five illuminated red-granite panels, each bearing the name of one of the victims. The panels will also quote a line from the university’s fight song — “Forward, together forward” — that students and others sang to rally their spirits in the aftermath of the February 14, 2008, tragedy.
The plan was unveiled Saturday on a day of solemn events marking the anniversary. The university’s president, John G. Peters, led a ceremony in the morning that honored not only the five people who were killed but also the emergency crews that responded to the shootings and volunteers who came to the university to help, the Chicago Tribune reported. Mr. Peters and the new Illinois governor, Pat Quinn, a Democrat, then led a procession to the site of the memorial garden, where families of the victims laid wreaths at the spot where the wall panels will be erected. Mr. Peters later welcomed the families and other university guests to a private lunch.
The idea for a garden emerged as the favorite among more than 200 suggestions contributed to a university committee created to choose a memorial design. The university’s facilities director, Jeff Daurer, worked on the design with HKM Architects + Planners, which donated its time to the project.
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