Oct. 14: Memorial ceremony for 1918 flu victims at UND

A 100th anniversary memorial ceremony for Pvt. Warren Arthur Parker will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14. Warren Parker died from complications of the influenza pandemic of 1918 while in training on campus for action in World War I.

A military procession by the UND Army ROTC will begin at 1 p.m. on Centennial Drive opposite the Old Main Sphere. Full military honors will be observed during the procession and memorial ceremony. The company will march from the site of Pvt. Parker’s death in UND’s Budge Hall (no longer standing) to the burial site in Memorial Park Cemetery on 10th Ave. N.

All civilian attendees are encouraged to walk with and behind the military procession, which begins at 1 p.m. The memorial service will begin at approximately 1:30 p.m. The grave site will be clearly marked along 10th Ave. N., east of Columbia Road.

LTC Jason Murphy will command the procession and the military memorial service at the grave site.

Pvt. Parker was a member of the UND Army Training Corps (SATC) during the summer and fall of 1918. The combined army training units on the UND campus consisted of over 500 men. During October and early November 1918, 27 soldiers succumbed to complications of the influenza pandemic while training for battle in the European theater of World War I. Pvt. Warren Arthur Parker was the first of the 27 to die. He passed way Oct. 14, 1918.

The procession and ceremony will observe the 100th anniversary of Pvt. Parker’s death, and will also provide a symbolic memorial for all 27 fallen SATC comrades.

For more information, visit www.undsatc.com and http://www.nd.gov/veterans/heroes/conflicts/wwi-student-army-training-corps.

— Janet Wolf Strand, janet.strand@und.edu