OCR Text |
Show :OlMIGVl 6 'pe&u&vuf , 2006 Man's remains buried next to climbing wall At first glance, the bench next to the climbing wall looks harmless; after all, it is just a plain marble bench engraved with two names: Ralph and Mary Tuck. This is not unusual, since Westminsters donors are listed in various places on campus, from the Giovales listed on the library to the Gores displayed on the wall in, you guessed it. Gore. However, the Tucks were not huge donors. They were not alumni. They simply just enjoyed the campus and the school. For this reason, Ralph elected that Westminster College was the proper site to leave a lasting mem- and Mary Tuck do not only have their names engraved on a bench for the whole campus to use; Ralph is also buried underneath it. I first heard about the Tucks from Karen Hendry, the Assistant to the Dean ory. Ralph and Veterans Coordinator, when she was my instructor in a freshman INTR class. She sent our class on a campus wide scavenger hunt with Ralph and Mary Tuck on the list, and then told us the chilling story about how Ralphs remains were under the bench. The story escaped my mind until Board of Trustees Members Don and Noreen Rouillard again told me about the legend of the Tucks. Noreen laughed when she retold the story about how after Ralph died Mary took his ashes to Steve Morgans office where they remained for a long time. Since no one on campus had any idea what to do with Ralphs remains, the urn was moved from office to office. After Ralphs remains circulated through various offices on campus, the college finally came up with a way to have his remains on campus. They would be placed under a bench as a memorial. Reverend Cheryl Moore, the Episcopal Priest who performed the ceremony, said, The ashes were in Steve Morgans office for a long time. We had to go through and get all kinds of permission in order to actually have the remains on the ground. It Ralphs , f I I remains had to be in a concrete vault. The ceremony was very simple, according to Moore. She said that it brought out maybe a dozen people and that it mainly consisted of a memorial service and a blessing of the ground. Mary was at the ceremony, according to Moore. After the ceremony, Moore said she visited Mary at her home. She said that Mary was a lovely little old lady who loved Westminster, and that she was very kind. Moore also commented that the Tucks very much loved Westminster College and wanted to support it in lots of different ways. According to her, the Tucks cording to the layout of the new building, it would be placed right on top of where the bench sits today. Wheth- er they choose to build on top of Ralphs remains or relocate them to a separate part of campus, Ralph and Mary Tuck will remain important legends on Westminsters Campus. enjoyed their involvement with the Development Center. Along with enjoying Westminster, the Tucks also had a special inter- est in the Moran Eye Center. Their dedication to vision is still commemorated after their deaths with the Ralph and Mary Tuck Endowment in Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Utah. The endowment is a gift of over $10,000, and because of confidentiality, the University of Utah stated that it could be in honor of the donor or any person or persons selected by the donor. The legacy of Ralph and Mary Tuck lives on. Many questions have arisen about what Westminster is going to do with Ralphs remains while the new sci- i ence building is being con- structed. Ac t r t |