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Alumni Veterans Tribute

Designed by university architect emeritus Robert Keller ’73, the Tribute is an artistically reflective place to express and experience the values and emotions that are stirred while remembering our veterans. Miami currently acknowledges nearly 8,000 alumni who have served and 279 killed in action or missing in action.

About the Tribute

Miami's Alumni Veterans Tribute celebrates our proud tradition of alumni in military service. Recognizing all five U.S. military branches, the Veterans Tribute consists of the following five elements:

  • Two interwoven and rising spirals that represent liberty and justice and wind inward toward an illuminated U.S. flag
  • An engraved band of names on the spirals of those who were killed in action or missing in action, symbolically placing Miami’s heroes at the foundation of U.S. freedoms
  • Inscriptions of the Bill of Rights, military oath, Pledge of Allegiance and Preamble to the Constitution on the metal cap of the wall
  • Quotes from former U.S. Presidents Benjamin Harrison (Miami 1852), Woodrow Wilson, and Harry S. Truman, and Gen. George S. Patton.
  • A five-pointed star, featuring five entrances that each have a triangular planter box with the seal of one of the military branches

Your Service Counts

Are you a Miamian and a Veteran?

Miami University and the Miami University Alumni Association wish to celebrate the fine tradition of military service by its alumni (anyone who attended Miami for at least one semester). If you or a member of your family served in the military, we want to ensure that our records of your service and those of your loved ones are up to date.

In addition to reporting service, records of living veterans can be included in a searchable, public database; however, participants must opt in for inclusion.

View the List

Student Veterans Center

Miami's Student Veterans Center in Wells Hall provides student veterans and military-affiliated students with a space to be around others with similar backgrounds and experiences. The Center is available to the students 24/7 and includes such amenities as desktop computers, comfortable furniture, a television and refrigerator, and lockers for storage.

The Center is handicapped accessible, in the center of campus and close to the Campus Avenue Building, which houses two locations the veterans may need: One Stop and the Student Success Center.

Students working in the Oxford campus Veterans Center using laptops

Alumni Veterans Tribute Dedication (2018)

Miami Friends, American Heroes

Miami has a proud tradition of alumni in the military, which includes the service of Terry Graves ('67) and William "Rich" Higgins ('67)—best friends in college who became two of Miami's most decorated veterans.

Read Their Story
An old college yearbook page showing Terry Graves and William Higgins's image next to each other

“That Miami has produced more than its share of military leaders over generations, from Souers to Buehl to Higgins to Arthur to Ralston, underscores its reputation as a premier institution of relatively small size. Consequently, a tribute to Miami Veterans not only honors America's fighting men and women, but also recalls the high values we hold dearly and have inculcated in our students since Miami's founding in 1809.”

Lt. General Robert R. Ruark ’81, USMC 
Miami’s highest-ranking active military officer 

Make a Gift

You can also send your gift online or by postal mail to the following address:

Miami University Foundation
Panuska Development Center
725 E. Chestnut Street
Oxford, Ohio 45056

Please checks payable to "Miami University Veterans Tribute."

Make a Gift Online
Miami ROTC students carry the flags during a ceremony.