{"id":1417,"date":"2025-11-13T13:36:59","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T13:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/?p=1417"},"modified":"2025-11-14T14:07:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T14:07:03","slug":"fountain-ceremony-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/2025\/11\/13\/fountain-ceremony-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Circle at the Fountain"},"content":{"rendered":"
The heavy, fall air settled over campus, a thin fog grazed the bricks of the Memorial Student Center Plaza. Campus seemed to hold its breath, as it does every year on this day, when remembrance and resilience meet, and time stands still.\"\"<\/p>\n

For members of the Marshall University Chorus, the day begins early. Their months of rehearsals have led to the day\u2019s time-honored tradition.<\/p>\n

\"Zach
Photo by Chris Scarberry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ready to sing Simon & Garfunkel\u2019s Homeward Bound<\/em> and end with Marshall\u2019s alma mater, the choir has their sheet music ready in their choral folders as they ready to honor one of Marshall\u2019s most treasured traditions, the Memorial Fountain Ceremony<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The choir and the crowd gathered near the fountain, its waters soon to be stilled for a moment of reflection.<\/p>\n

The music carried across the plaza, touching hearts of alumni, students, families\u2014anyone who stood in the shadow of the fountain knew they were hearing something sacred.<\/p>\n

Standing in the crowd is a high schooler from Baltimore, Ohio, named Zach Falther, who is visiting on a campus tour. He discovered Marshall by the nationally-ranked forensic chemistry program and came to tour on an important date in the university\u2019s history\u2014November 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea at the time that it was going on,\u201d he said. \u201cI got to see part of the ceremony and see how big of a family Marshall is. And I just immediately fell in love with the university.\u201d<\/p>\n

He couldn\u2019t forget the image of the fountain ceremony in his mind, the people gathered, forever bonded by loss.<\/p>\n

Zach returned to Marshall as a student in fall 2012 and he quickly became involved on campus, including playing the clarinet the Marching Thunder and singing in the Marshall University Chorus.<\/p>\n

\"Zach
Photo by Chris Scarberry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zach\u2019s first experience on campus came full circle senior year when a football game fell on the date of the memorial fountain ceremony, and he performed at halftime with the Marching Thunder.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a big game, and we got to remember the 75,\u201d Zach said. \u201cI will never forget the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zach graduated from Marshall\u2019s criminal justice program and the Honors College in December 2015.<\/p>\n

Looking back on his time as a Marshall student, Zach credits the university with providing him not only with a strong educational foundation but also with a network of lifelong friends and mentors.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody was always so friendly. I made so many great friends there that I still talk to this day,\u201d Zach said.<\/p>\n

While he came to campus for the program, he stayed for the family. Zach\u2019s moved a bit around the country, but comes back to campus when he\u2019s close by.<\/p>\n

He carries with him the values and experiences he gained at Marshall\u2014forever a proud member of the Herd.<\/p>\n

Each year, on November 14, the Marshall family continues to stand together united in remembrance, resilience and hope.<\/p>\n

\"drone<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The heavy, fall air settled over campus, a thin fog grazed the bricks of the Memorial Student Center Plaza. Campus seemed to hold its breath, as it does every year on this day, when remembrance and resilience meet, and time stands still. For members of the Marshall University Chorus, the day begins early. Their months […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":945,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/945"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1417"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1469,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417\/revisions\/1469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}