Please join President Teresa Sullivan, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries John Unsworth, and alumnus Edwin Fountain, Vice Chair of the World War One Commission and general counsel of the American Battle Monuments Commission, on Thursday, March 16 at 11:00 a.m. at the Auditorium of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library for an event to honor the memory of James Rogers McConnell.

Mr. McConnell, a UVA student from 1907-1910, was one of the original American pilots in the Lafayette Escadrille in France in World War I. Mr. McConnell was killed in aerial combat with two German planes, above the Somme battlefields, near the village of Flavy-le-Martel, Aisne, on March 19, 1917. The Aviator statue on Grounds, sculpted by Gutzon Borglum, was dedicated in Mr. McConnell’s honor in June 1919. Special Collections librarians will discuss memorabilia in an exhibit related to Mr. McConnell.

For questions about the event, please contact the Office of the President: 434-982-2392, ss9ug@virginia.edu