University Honors Veteran Students, Alumni, on Veterans Day

Looking around the Rockhurst University campus, evidence of longstanding support for veterans is never far away.

Campus maps drawn following World War II show buildings constructed to accommodate the host of soldiers welcomed to campus after returning from war. Plaques in the Massman Hall gallery and in Sedgwick Hall honor those from the Rockhurst community who served and lost their lives. Today, the G.I. Bill continues to pave the way for students to get their education — a total of 41 veteran, active-duty and reserve-status soldiers are attending Rockhurst University as a result of those benefits, along with a number of descendants of other military veterans.

This year, Rockhurst students, faculty and staff honored the generations of military veterans who have found a home at RU. Last week, students signed personalized postcards to be sent to alumni veterans. On Saturday, the University honored veterans again, this time with a special alumni breakfast that highlighted those veterans from every generation who came to Rockhurst. Mike Hughes, ’59, shared how his experience at Rockhurst helped kickstart his career as a doctor with the United States Navy, an experience that included a stint on a submarine.

“My enthusiasm for learning started here at Rockhurst,” he said. “And my enthusiasm for learning increased in the Navy.”

Charles Moran, Ph.D., Rockhurst professor of political science and a 1961 graduate of Rockhurst, said his service also taught him the value of the sacrifices made by so many.

“The plaque in this room has 79 names on it,” he said, pointing to a plaque on the wall of the Massman Gallery. “That’s almost an entire class that lost their lives in World War II.”

He also credited his time in the military with helping to broaden his horizons, teaching him how to stay calm under pressure and helping him pay for a college education. To this day, Moran said, he feels camaraderie with veteran or active-duty students.

Jeremy Adkins, a Rockhurst senior who served as a medic in Iraq with the 10th Mountain Division, wrote in a 2015-2016 student reflection about how those benefits helped his grandfather, Joe Kuestersteffen, who served in the Air Force during World War II, get an education at Rockhurst upon returning. A generation later Adkins would take the same path, using G.I. Bill funding to transfer to Rockhurst, where he wrote he found much more than an education.

“By encouraging community service, implementing the core Jesuit values and having an incredible education curriculum and campus, I was able to begin to rebuild and mend during my time here. Rockhurst not only showed me what I was missing, but helped me find fulfillment that I didn’t even know I needed,” he wrote. “It’s easy to recognize that Rockhurst University is not just an institution for education. It is a family, too.”