Advocates call on residents to remember forgotten memorials at City Stadium

A rich green patina coats the history nestled in a shadowy, unnoticed corner of City Stadium.

In 1944, U.S. Army pursuit planes crisscrossed the sky above that corner of Lynchburg as a memorial was placed honoring Lynchburg’s sons, John White Acree and William Gerhard Suhling III. They were football greats who gave up the gridiron to enter World War II and later died in the line of duty.

More than 60 years later, Acree and Suhling’s three-foot-tall memorial, along with the tributes to Dan Ray Justice, Edley Craighill and Robert Emory Jones, swim in a pool of pine needles next to a barbed-wire-topped chainlink fence.

Until recently they were hidden behind a picnic bench and decorated with bird droppings, candy wrappers and cigarette butts at their feet.

Standing by the monuments the Friday before the big Liberty University football game, Mike Morris smiled, pleased to see that someone has taken a pressure washer to the stones and the bronze plaques.

“These were good men, They were smart, sharp. They would have been leaders in the country,” said Morris, who brought attention to the memorials at Saturday’s game.

The Vietnam and Gulf War veteran grew up on the fields and in the press box at City Stadium.

He still remembers what the stadium looked like in the 1950s and he has a vision of what it could look like in the future.

“This was once an absolutely beautiful place,” said Morris, who has traveled the country with numerous professional baseball teams.

The stadium, he said, was important to the men memorialized there. Most of them graduated from E.C. Glass High School and all of them played football on its field. When it was Municipal Stadium it was a place that their college teams were willing to travel to for games.

Dan Ray Justice, playing for Washington and Lee, for example, scored the first touchdown in the stadium in October of 1939. Local alumni of Washington and Lee placed the monument in his honor. The plaque for Craighill and Jones was added by their fathers’ friends, also veterans.

Morris and his group have become advocates for the families of those represented on the plaques. The monuments need to be brought front and center, not only so they bring honor to those memorialized but also so they draw the attention of those who attend games, he said.

“We want them out where people can see them in a beautiful sunlit area in view of the mountains,” said Morris.

From that location, a few feet away, one can hear the whip of the American flag when the wind picks up.

“I’d like to see them moved and tended to and care for,” said Leigh (Suhling) Barth, the niece of William Suhling III. He was captain of the University of Virginia football team when he enlisted in the war just three months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

It doesn’t have to be anything “elaborate or expensive, just to have them treated with respect. Right now it just doesn’t seem like that’s the case,” said Barth, whose father says he misses his older brother to this day.

Ed Craighill, too, is eager to see changes. Edley Craighill, for whom he is a namesake, is one of those honored. He’s already thinking of brick pavers, plantings and a small retaining wall to encircle the monuments.

“I just think that it’s a tribute to those who fought in World War II, to recognize and not to forget all that they’ve done,” said Craighill, who is working with Morris. “You and I are able to do what we do today because of him (Craighill).”

Craighill, president of Boxley Block, Brick and Hardscapes, has already agreed to remove the stones, which are driven four to five feet deep into the ground. His company is also donating all of the pavers and landscape materials such as crushed stone.

All of the ideas and plans for the monuments are coming from Lynchburg residents, something that is very important to Morris. The memorials are about Lynchburg’s past, are for Lynchburg’s residents, and so Lynchburg’s people are going to make the change happen, he said.

His task may not be easy, though. Over the decades others have tried, and failed, to bring the monuments out of seclusion.

But Morris, a very patient and determined man, is confident he will find enough support. His group must now present a full design plan to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. Andrew Reeder, Park Services Manager, said his office would take about two to three weeks to go over the plan. Parks and Recreation may then make suggestions or recommendations for changes.

Reeder said his department, which already is familiar with the plans for the stadium upgrades, would review the plans with the future in mind.

“We have design money this year and we’ll hope to be able to fund stadium construction the next two to three years,” said Reeder. He is confident that a site can be found for the monuments that will be unaffected by the construction.

After Parks and Recreation signs off on the plan the group has permission to pursue the work, which it has agreed to do on its own. Morris’ group has also agreed to be responsible for maintenance and upkeep.

“They lost their lives for us,” said Craighill. “It’s a small thing but yet there’s a huge message in all of it.”

Men memorialized at City Stadium

• John White Acree, 1918-1942. Captain of the Univer-sity of Virginia Football Team 1938. Enlisted in Naval Reserve in 1940. Promoted to Lieutenant, Junior Grade, U.S. Navy in 1942. Killed in action in Pacific in 1942. A destroyer was later named after him.
• William Gerhard Suhling III, 1921-1943. Captain–elect of the University of Virginia Football Team, 1942. Second Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps. Killed in an airplane crash in 1943.
• Dan Ray Justice, 1920/1921-1944. Marine Corps, graduated from E.C. Glass. Died in action in Guam in 1944. Washington and Lee now gives the Dan Ray Justice Award in his honor. 
• Edley Craighill Jr., 1920-1944. U.S. Army. Died in action in Normandy in 1944 while carrying ammunition back to his troops. 
• Edley Robert Emory Jones, 1925-1945. U.S. Army, Infantry Sergeant died in 1945 in action in Luxembourg during the Battle of the Bulge.