Kiffin Yates Rockwell Memorial

Kiffin Yates Rockwell attended Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee (Class of 1913) before volunteering for French service at the outbreak of World War I. He and his brother Paul departed for Europe in August 1914 and joined the French Foreign Legion. Rockwell was among the first Americans to fight in the war, entering combat as a volunteer for France more than two years before the United States became a belligerent.

Rockwell initially fought as an infantryman and was wounded in May 1915. He subsequently entered aviation and became one of the founding pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille, the squadron of American volunteers serving in the French air service. On May 18, 1916, he achieved the squadron’s first aerial victory. He continued flying through the summer before being killed in aerial combat over Alsace on September 23, 1916, at age twenty-four.

In a letter to his mother, Rockwell explained that he was fighting “for the cause of humanity, the greatest of all causes.” During Commencement exercises on June 15, 1920, fraternity brothers in Washington and Lee’s Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter commemorated him with a bronze tablet in Lee Chapel. Reflecting on the occasion, the Ring-tum Phi declared that “The tablet, which marks the passing of another hero of the Washington and Lee Alumni, will forever keep afresh the beloved memory of one who paid the supreme sacrifice for his country.”

The university removed the bronze plaque from Lee Chapel in 2021. Before its reinstallation, metal restoration specialist Steve Roy removed the white coating and restored the plaque’s bronze finish. It was subsequently installed at Memorial Gateway and formally rededicated on October 21, 2022, alongside the James Howard Monroe and Moomaw–Lingle memorials, which had also been removed from the Chapel.

KIFFIN YATES ROCKWELL, EX’ 13
BORN SEPTEMBER 20, 1892
LIEUTENANT, LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE
FRENCH ARMY.
KILLED IN AERIAL COMBAT OVER
RODERN, ALSACE.
SEPTEMBER 23, 1916,
HIS MEMORY A SHRINE IN OUR HEARTS.
SIGMA PHI EPSILON.

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://tennesseehistory.org/kiffin-rockwell-world-war-flying-ace/

2. https://digitalarchive.wlu.edu/islandora/ring-tum-phi-june-15-1920?search_api_fulltext=kiffin

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/