Clovis Moomaw and John Arthur Lingle Jr. Memorial

Clovis Moomaw and John Arthur Lingle Jr. were Washington and Lee law alumni whose lives were cut short during American service in World War I. Moomaw graduated from the School of Law in 1912 and remained at Washington and Lee, first serving as acting professor and later as associate professor of law. He was also closely involved in University athletics, including as captain of the football team. After the United States entered the war in 1917, Moomaw resigned from the law faculty to enter the Army. He became an officer in Company D, 318th Infantry, 80th Division, and served with American forces in France.

On October 5, 1918, First Lieutenant Moomaw was killed during the Meuse-Argonne offensive while conducting reconnaissance near the Bois de Faye. His brother later traveled to France and participated in a search that located his remains in May 1919.

John Arthur Lingle Jr., a native of Paoli, Indiana, graduated from DePauw University before earning his law degree from Washington and Lee in 1915. A practicing lawyer before the war, Lingle entered officers’ training at Fort Benjamin Harrison in May 1917, received a commission, and eventually attained the rank of captain. He sailed overseas in October 1918 but died of pneumonia at Liverpool, England, on October 21, weeks before the Armistice.

The Sigma Society, to which both men belonged, commemorated the two alumni together with a bronze tablet in Lee Chapel. The shared memorial preserved the names of two members of the Washington and Lee community whose wartime experiences had ended very differently — Moomaw killed in combat in France and Lingle dying from illness shortly after reaching England. Moomaw’s connection to Washington and Lee was particularly extensive: he had entered the University as a law student, became captain of their football team, joined its faculty after graduation, and left his teaching position specifically to enter military service. Upon the dedication of the Memorial Gateway in 1921, President Henry Louis Smith wrote, “There isn't a man who was at Washington and Lee during Moomaw's long connection there that didn't admire this clean, manly fellow, who had the affection of all with whom he came in contact.”

The University removed the bronze plaque from Lee Chapel in 2021. Before its reinstallation, metal restoration specialist Steve Roy removed the white coating applied to the plaque during the Chapel’s 1960s interior redesign and restored its original bronze finish. The Moomaw–Lingle memorial was subsequently installed at the Memorial Gateway and formally rededicated on October 21, 2022, alongside the Kiffin Yates Rockwell and James Howard Monroe memorials. At the ceremony, Rector Mike McAlevey ’86 remarked, “The plaques belong here; the names belong here. They join the names of our fellow alumni who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.”

PLACED HERE BY
SIGMA
TO THE MEMORY OF
CLOVIS MOOMAW, 1912
FIRST LIEUTENANT, INFANTRY
KILLED IN ACTION, MEUSE-ARGONNE
OCTOBER 5, 1918
JOHN ARTHUR LINGLE JR., 1915
CAPTAIN, ARTILLERY
DIED OF PNEUMONIA
IN AMERICAN HOSPITAL
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND
OCTOBER 21, 1918

On June 4, 2021, the Washington and Lee University Board of Trustees announced plans to rename Lee Chapel and restore its auditorium to an “unadorned design,” physically separating it from the Lee family crypt and memorial sculpture. As part of these changes, university officials removed twenty historical plaques and memorials from the chapel sanctuary.

On October 21, 2022, three of the plaques commemorating veterans who had attended Washington and Lee were formally rededicated at the Memorial Gateway, located at the Jefferson Street entrance to campus. The memorials honored Kiffin Yates Rockwell, James Howard Monroe, Clovis Moomaw and John Arthur Lingle Jr. At the dedication, Rector Mike McAlevey, ’86, declared, “The plaques belong here; the names belong here. They join the names of our fellow alumni who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.”

Other memorials commemorating military service were not reinstalled. In a July 21, 2022, update, the university had announced that “most of the other plaques [removed from the chapel] will be moved to the galleries in the building or to the new institutional history museum, where they can be displayed with more historical context.” In its October 25, 2022 announcement concerning the Memorial Gateway dedication, the university reiterated that “the remaining plaques will be moved to the Chapel Galleries or into the new institutional history museum upon its completion.” When the renovated chapel galleries reopened in June 2026, only six of the seventeen remaining memorials had been returned to public display.

The university has not responded to recent TGR inquiries concerning the whereabouts and future exhibition of removed plaques. However, in September 2026 correspondence with The W&L Spectator, Museum Director Matt Davis stated: “Our storage facility is not open to the public, nor do we make a list of our collections inventory available to the public.” He further explained that “the size and weight of some of these artifacts are not conducive to public viewing.” Regarding their future exhibition, Davis wrote: “It is possible that some or all of these artifacts will eventually be incorporated into temporary or permanent exhibits once the new museum is open, and we hope to have online databases and viewing rooms in the future.”

1. https://www.pikearchive.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PKA_SD_1921_JAN.pdf

2. https://digitalarchive.wlu.edu/islandora/ring-tum-phi-march-1-1922

3. https://www.wlu.edu/about-w-l/leadership/board-of-trustees/messages-from-the-board-of-trustees/message-archive-2020-2023/the-future-of-washington-and-lee-university

4. https://columns.wlu.edu/update-on-university-chapel-renovations/

5. https://columns.wlu.edu/new-plaques-dedicated-to-the-memorial-gateway/