The Story Behind The Arch
The World War I Memorial Arch is dedicated to Lt. William Fitzsimons specifically, and all other former St. Mary’s College students who served in WWI.
During the Great War, World War I, the Student Army Training Corps was established at St Marys and the campus was crowded with students in STAC uniforms. Over 700 of St Marys “old boys” (alumni) served in the War, and no less than 19 paid with the supreme sacrifice of their lives.
One of these, Lieutenant William T. Fitzsimons, of the Medical Corps was the first American Officer to die in France, September 4, 1917.
On Memorial day of 1922, a fountain honoring him was dedicated in Kansas City, Missouri, which can still be seen on the Paseo, a short distance from interstate 70.
Meanwhile at St Marys, a magnificent Memorial Arch, gift of the College Alumni, was constructed at the main gateway of the college to honor Lt. Fitzsimons and all the St Mary’s sons who fought in the war.
Dedicated during the Diamond Jubilee Celebration of St Marys in 1923, with Kansas Governor Jonathan M. Davis as a special guest, the Arch is surmounted by the Cross, and bears on either side of the inscription the old SMC seal, one commemorating the founding of the Society of Jesus in 1540, the other the founding of St Marys in 1848.
Lt. William Fitzsimons
Lieutenant William T. Fitzsimons (1889–1917), an American officer in the Medical Reserve Corps, was the first United States Army officer to die in World War I. Fitzsimons, a St Marys College alumnus, died from wounds suffered during a German air raid on September 4, 1917, when bombs fell on Base Hospital No. 5 near Dannes-Camiers in Pas-de-Calais, France. Following his death, memorials to Fitzsimons were dedicated in St Marys and across the country, including the renaming of Army Hospital #21 in Aurora, Colorado, to Fitzsimons Army Hospital in 1920. Through his sacrifice, William Fitzsimons wholly embodied the image of the selfless doctor and helped galvanize the nation against the atrocities of war.