About the Fountain....About the Fountain....Magnanimous gestures poured in from across the country
following the tragic plane crash. Financial contributions to a memorial
fund were remitted from countless donors from all over the country. The
Wichita State University, which had suffered a similar accident in October
of 1970 when 14 of their football players were killed, divided the proceeds
from a nationally televised benefit called "Night of the Stars."
Donations came from service clubs, churches, professional sports teams,
high school and 
college athletes, Alumni, and
members of Congress.
Plans were drawn for the construction of a new, modern
student union building and a memorial fountain ensuring that generations
of Marshall students would never forget the disaster of the 1970 plane crash
and so that the lives and deeds of the victims would be immortalized. Built
at a cost of more than half a million dollars, the new Memorial Student
Center became "one of the most 
modern
and versatile buildings of its kind in the country."
The accompanying monument was the Memorial Fountain. Standing
over 13 feet high and weighing in at 6,500 pounds, the structure cost $10,000.
From
the creative hands of Italian-born sculptor,
Harry Bertoia, it was his hope that the fountain would "commemorate
the living- rather than death- on the waters of life, rising, receding,
surging so as to express upward growth, immortality and eternality."
The fountain was dedicated to the Marshall community by President John G. Barker on November 12, 1972. the bronze plaque bears the simple, eloquent inscription,
"They shall live on in the hearts of their families and friends forever and this memorial records their loss to the university and the community."