Name to be added to KU’s Campanile

Listing of WWII dead to grow to 277

For 50 years, Kansas University has claimed that every student, faculty and staff member killed during World War II had their name listed on the memorial Campanile.

The family of Raleigh Chase Bowlby Jr. knew better.

He was a student killed in Italy, but for some reason his name wasn’t included among the 276 listed on the Campanile’s granite interior walls.

That will change this fall, when the university adds Bowlby’s name to the memorial.

“We have an incomplete Campanile,” said Jeff Weinberg, assistant to the chancellor. “Hopefully we can complete it by adding Mr. Bowlby.”

Bowlby’s inscription, expected within a month, will be the first name added since the Campanile was dedicated in 1951. The Campanile was the result of a committee of KU students and officials looking for an appropriate memorial to commemorate those killed in World War II.

Bowlby, a native of Marion, was one semester short of a KU business degree when he enlisted in the Army in February 1941. He married his high school sweetheart, Mary Jane Shahan, in 1943.

He was killed April 8, 1944, in action near Cassino, Italy.

Bowlby’s wife later remarried another war veteran. Kathy Booth, their daughter, said the family didn’t discuss Bowlby much, out of respect for her father.

Bowlby

But after Booth’s father died, her mother — now Mary Jane Cunningham, of Caldwell — began talking more about Bowlby.

“Grandma did a good job to make sure we all understood the stories about Raleigh,” said Booth’s daughter, Marsha Parr. “I was always really proud of him, even though I had never met him.”

A trip to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., made the family wonder why Bowlby’s name wasn’t included on the Campanile.

“We had season tickets for basketball and football, and we knew it wasn’t there,” said Booth, who lives in Sterling. “We just thought he didn’t meet the criteria or something. It wasn’t something we fretted about. We were just curious.”

Booth simply asked KU whether Bowlby could be included in the university archives as being a KU student killed in the war. Weinberg said KU verified Bowlby’s enrollment and that he was killed in the war.

Raleigh Chase Bowlby Jr., born May 3, 1918, in Marion, attended Kansas University for seven semesters beginning in 1936. He majored first in liberal arts, then changed his major to business.Bowlby joined the Army on Feb. 22, 1941. In 1942, he was sent to Officer Candidate School in Fort Benning, Ga., and was assigned to the 88th Division.He married his high school sweetheart, Mary Jane Shahan — now Mary Jane Cunningham, of Caldwell — Oct. 31, 1943, in the chapel at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.Bowlby, part of an anti-tank company, was killed in action April 8, 1944, near Cassino, Italy. He reached the rank of 2nd lieutenant.

“There was never any question once we found out it was missing what we had to do,” Weinberg said. “We had to add the name.”

That response floored Bowlby’s family.

“I was stunned,” Booth said. “I never really thought that to be an option.”

Midland Marble & Granite of Independence, Mo., has volunteered its time and supplies to install granite bearing Bowlby’s name. The work should be completed in the next month, Weinberg said.

Sunlight reflected off the floor of the Campanile shines on names of KU students killed in World War II. For the first time in 50 years, the Campanile will have an addition: the name of Raleigh Bowlby Jr. Bowlby was killed in Italy, but his name wasn't included among the 276 listed on the Campanile's granite interior walls. That will change this fall, when the university adds Bowlby's name to the memorial.

Weinberg said research on what names to include among the students and staff killed in World War II relied heavily on family reporting, because no official military record existed of what soldiers were affiliated with universities.

“The thing we can’t figure out is after all this careful work, why this one name was the only one we know of not on the Campanile,” Weinberg said.

He said the omission of Bowlby was making the university especially careful when deciding which names to include on the Korean War Memorial, which is under construction along Memorial Drive.

Cunningham, Bowlby’s widow, declined an interview request, saying she wanted the focus of the Campanile addition to remain on Bowlby.

But Booth said the family was looking forward to seeing Bowlby’s name at the KU landmark.

“This is about Raleigh,” Booth said. “It just means a lot to the family to get that recognition. We’re proud of our veterans. It’s the greatest sacrifice a person can make for their country.”

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