The Golden Book in the
Indiana Memorial Union is
enclosed in a glass case.
ETTERS ON A PAGE. THAT’S THE EASY WAY TO LOOK AT IT. It’s a book of names, a few bits of details
and dates, written in script. Dee Rockwood, MS’79, a Bloomington, Ind., elementary school teacher by profession, a calligrapher by passion, worked in whatever spare time she had, so that days became weeks and then
months to memorialize what had been unorganized lists scrawled onto index cards and stuffed into shoe boxes.
It’s called the Golden Book, and its hundreds of pages — totaling about 10,000 names — list all the “sons and
daughters” of Indiana University who served in battles ranging from the War of 1812 to World War II.
The Golden Book honors IU alumni who
have served their country in times of war.
But names are meaningless without the stories behind them. These were people who lived, loved, sacrificed, and often died.
“Killed in action” is the way it’s described, but that just touches the surface.
DENNIS HILL
BY PETE D I PRIMIO
INDIANA ALUMNI MAGA ZINE
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For the truth you have to dig deeper, past the locked glass case
that protects the nearly 60-year-old book from time and touch.
You have to go beyond the Memorial Room that houses it in IU’s
Memorial Union, beyond the pair of black iron gates that guard
it, past the old European stained glass windows and an imposing
statue of a former commander of a Union prisoner of war camp,
a Cream and Crimson geology professor who was so honorable
when so many others were not that, after the Civil War ended,
the Confederate prisoners who had been in his charge commissioned a bust in his image.
There’s more, of course, but we won’t start there.
Flash back to 1944. Former IU student Robert Alvey Newton,
a U.S. Army tank gunner and escaped POW, has found sanctuary
in the Italian town of Santa Vittoria. After six months, German
SS troops find him and another escaped American and order
them to go to the nearby Osso River to gather firewood.
It is the next-to-last order they will ever hear.
and Newton are wounded and captured. Newton has burns on
his hands and face. He is taken to a hospital in Bari, Italy, that
was once a convent. Eventually he is transported by train to
Camp 59, a prison in the small Italian town of Servigliano.
While a prisoner, Newton learns German and Italian. He has
no intention of waiting out the war as a POW. Camp 59 is not
Alcatraz. Escape is possible for those who are willing and brave.
Newton is both. There is an enemy to defeat and a career to start.
Newton escapes with fellow POW Raymond Cox. They are
among the 2,000 prisoners who flee Camp 59 during the war.
Many move throughout the Italian countryside to avoid detection
while seeking a way back to Allied territory. Newton and another
prisoner, Martin Majeski, meet Pietro Viozzi, who offers them
haven at his farm near the small town of Santa Vittoria. Loneliness is not a problem. Four families live there. Newton and
Majeski make it an even 30 people in the house.
Newton and Majeski become so much a part of the family
(Newton gets an Italian name — Roberto Newtoni) that they decide to stay. They help work the farm. They make toys and teach
the children English. Pietro grows to love them as sons. They
become visible, a dangerous reality in a deadly world.
Nazis and Italian fascists are targets for raids and attacks
behind the lines, and somebody has to pay. An order goes out in
early 1944 to execute escaped prisoners and any Italians helping
the Allies.
And then ….
Cpl. Robert Newton looms basketball tall in the black-andwhite photo. The Logansport native towers over his fellow
tank crew members of the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division:
California’s Everett Gregg, Detroit’s Lee Kaser, and Tennessee’s
Philip Caldwell. They are posed in full uniform at an undisclosed
location, ready for a battle not all will survive.
Newton, who attended IU from 1938 to 1940, plans to return
to school and become a family doctor when the war is over. He’s
a pinochle enthusiast who loves children. He is kind and strong
and if he smokes too much, well, that is what many soldiers do in
an era before the dangers are known.
On Feb. 15, 1943, Newton and his crew are involved in the
Battle of Sidi Bou Zid in the North African country of Tunisia.
The poorly led Allied forces are routed by the Germans.
During the battle, Newton, Kaser, and Gregg are in the same
tank. Caldwell is behind them in a tank destroyer. The forward
tank is hit by an artillery shell. Kaser is killed instantly. Gregg
Robert Alvey Newton, left, with his fellow tank crew members of the U.S.
Army’s 1st Armored Division. Newton was captured in 1943.
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G O L D E N B O O K E N T R Y, T YA G A N M I L L E R /
N E W TO N I N I TA LY, C O U R T E S Y O F R O B E R T A . N E W TO N
Dennis Hill is the administrator and main researcher for a
website called Survivors of Camp 59 — Experiences of the Allied
servicemen who were Prisoners of War at Servigliano, Italy. He
talked with Newton’s nephew, also named Robert Newton, for
details about the war experience. The nephew visited Italy in 1999,
talked to surviving family members and wrote about his uncle.
Additional insight was provided from Italian historian Filippo
Ierano, who interviewed Cesare Viozzi for a story that appeared
in a July 2001 Italian publication. Cesare was just a young boy
when his parents took in the Americans.
Accounts vary on exactly what happened next.
According to Cesare, the Americans slept in the stables on a
couch hidden by hay and animals, but were with the family during the day. Newton, in particular, liked to help with the animals.
Very early one morning on March 9, 1944, German troops appeared in town. One account suggested they were actually Italian
fascists dressed as German soldiers.
The Americans hid in a ditch. Eventually, Cesare said, the
Viozzis were told the Germans had left, so the Americans joined
the family for breakfast.
Two German soldiers returned on motorbikes and went
straight for the Viozzi house, even though other families were
hiding escaped prisoners. The soldiers raised their guns and
ordered everybody out, instantly recognizing the Americans.
Cesare said a spy in the town must have told the Germans about
the Americans.
The Germans took the Americans to a small wooded area near
the river and ordered them to stand near the water. Family members heard gunshots. One account said the men were shot in the
back and kicked into the river. Another said they were ordered to
dig their own graves and then shot.
Whatever the version, Robert Newton and Martin Majeski
were dead.
The Germans returned to the Viozzi house and ordered everyone out, even an old aunt who had been bedridden for years.
They set fire to the house, took money, food, and a horse and
burned down the hay barn as an example to those who would
help POWs.
The next day a man brought the bodies of the Americans
into town on a horse and cart for burial. Cesare said the man,
a poor farmer, demanded that the Viozzis pay for the expense.
The Americans were buried in a Santa Vittoria cemetery. A few
months later, the bodies were moved to an American cemetery
in southern Italy. Several years later, their families arrived to take
the bodies back home.
“Our family suffered,” Cesare said, “but no one ever regretted
having given hospitality to those poor boys.”
In December of 2010, the Newton family — including a
93-year-old aunt — visited Indiana’s Memorial Union to see
the Golden Book. Hill had asked Thom Simmons, the associate
director for the Memorial Union, to have the book turned to the
page that listed Robert Newton. Here is what the family saw:
Newton, Robert Alvey
Ex 1944
Logansport
U.S.A. Tank Corps
Killed in action in Italy, March 9, 1944.
Just letters on a page?
Not even close.
There are other stories, of course. For those we must turn
the page …
choice — obey his orders and, perhaps,
jeopardize the lives of his fellow soldiers;
or disobey, complete his mission, and
buy his decimated unit some desperately
needed time.
He had seconds to decide …
Church had been a varsity swimmer at
IU, graduating in 1939. He was athletic and charming and popular. He also was tough and fiercely competitive. He cared about
the men he served with.
In September of 1941, he was a lieutenant stationed in the
Philippines as a pilot in the Army Air Corps. One day members
of his unit, the 17th Pursuit Squadron, went swimming. A soldier
got caught in the undertow and was pulled out to sea. Church
swam out and kept him afloat until other soldiers could get a boat
from a nearby village and rescue them. He was honored for his
actions.
By December of 1941, United States officials knew there was
a strong likelihood the Japanese would attack, but did little to
prepare. Many believed the Japanese would hit the Philippines
first because it was closer to Japan. Instead, on Dec. 7, 1941, they
attacked Pearl Harbor. Nine hours later, they invaded the Philippines.
Most of the American planes were destroyed in the initial
attack. The ones that survived (mostly P-40 fighter planes with
shark mouths painted on the noses) were just used for scouting
the area. The Americans couldn’t afford to lose any more planes
in battle.
By Dec. 10, the Japanese had landed near the Philippine town
of Vigan, where Church and his unit were stationed. Five days
later, Japanese troops and 25 planes had settled onto a nearby
field. Americans decided to attack. The mission was led by Lt.
Boyd “Buzz” Wagner, who had already shot down four enemy
planes. He needed a wingman and picked Church, one of the
squadron’s most experienced pilots.
According to an AirForce-Magazine.com story by John L. Frisbee, Wagner went first and dropped six 30-pound fragmentation
bombs on Japanese planes neatly positioned on the field. Church
was next, but by then the Japanese had started shooting. Church’s
plane was hit and burst into flames. Wagner ordered Church to
turn back and bail out. Church did not. He knew the Americans
couldn’t afford to waste this opportunity. It might help the squadron hold on until reinforcements arrived. It might save lives. So
he dropped all his bombs, destroying as many Japanese planes as
he could before his P-40 crashed, killing him.
“I know that Church knew he was facing certain death when
he decided to remain with his mission,” Wagner told Frisbee.
“What Russell Church did at Vigan was the most courageous
thing I have ever seen in this Pacific war.”
Church was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service
Cross for his bravery. It was reported the Japanese saw his selfsacrifice and buried him with full military honors.
And then …
Russell Church’s last fiery seconds on earth left him with a
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John Summerlot can’t help himself. Every time the McNutt
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INDIANA ALUMNI MAGA ZINE
Maybe Lucien Greathouse was too young to know he wasn’t
bulletproof. The Illinois native was only 16 when he graduated from IU in 1858 to become a lawyer. When the Civil War
broke out two years later he enlisted with Illinois’ 48th Infantry, also known as Pharoah’s Army. In three years he went
from private to colonel. He fought with Gen. U.S. Grant at the
Battle of Vicksburg and was part of Gen. William Tecumseh
Sherman’s march through the South.
During the Battle of Atlanta, the Illinois 48th attacked a
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Confederate stronghold. Greathouse led
the charge by riding a large horse with a
saber in his hand. According to legend,
one Rebel soldier yelled, “Surrender,
can’t you see you’re beaten?” Greathouse
replied, “Beat hell, we’ve just come into
the fight.”
Then his fight ended. He was shot in
the chest and instantly killed. It was July
22, 1864, and Greathouse was 22 years
old.
The Illinois 48th responded by capturing the stronghold and, shortly thereafter,
Atlanta fell. Sherman burned the city to
the ground.
Two days later, Sherman received word
that Greathouse had been promoted to
brigadier general.
“He would have been the youngest
brigadier general in American history,”
Summerlot says. “After the war, Gen.
Sherman was asked who was the bravest
man he’d fought with. He said it was
tough because everybody was brave, but if he had to identify
somebody, it would be Col. Greathouse.”
Greathouse, too, is a name on a page.
And so much more. K
T YA G A N M I L L E R
conceived as a weapon for trench warfare. It was known as
the Annihilator.
Thompson attended IU for a year before moving on to West
Point. His father, James, was a military science professor at
Indiana in the 1870s.
“People don’t often think of IU as a
place for engineers and great weapons,”
Summerlot says, “but one of the most infamous weapons of the early 20th century
was invented by an IU student.”
History shows that one of the most
dramatic early navy battles of the Civil
War involved the Union’s Monitor and
the Confederates’ Merrimack. It was the
first naval confrontation between two
ironclad warships, and they basically
fought to a draw on March 9, 1862, as
part of the Confederates’ attempt to
break the naval blockade of Virginia.
The bigger significance was the
worldwide impact it had. Great Britain
and France immediately stopped building wooden ships and began making
iron vessels.
An IU student, W.C.L. Taylor, reportedly was a soldier on the Monitor. He
later fought in the battles of Second Bull
Run, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania, and
Petersburg.
Don’t forget Paul McNutt, a 1913 IU honors graduate, a
member of the Indiana National Guard, a World War I veteran, governor of Indiana during the 1930s, and ambassador
to the Philippines. McNutt Center is named for him.
And then there were the student volunteers who in the
summer of 1916 saw action in the Texas-Mexico border war
involving Pancho Villa, the famous Mexican bandit and revolutionary leader.
“It was hot and miserable there,” Summerlot says. “A lot of
the starting football team was on that unit. They came back in
time to start fall semester.”
Their return couldn’t prevent a 2-4-1 record, IU’s sixth
straight non-winning season. The Hoosiers did beat Florida
(the Gators weren’t the power they are now) and DePauw, and
tied Purdue.
That leads to a final story …
The Memorial Room of the Indiana Memorial Union
hosts the Golden Book, which lists the names
of Indiana University alumni who served their
country in the wars of the republic. The book also
lists the names of donors whose funds were used
to construct three IU buildings: the old Memorial
Stadium, the Memorial Union, and Memorial Hall
in the Agnes E. Wells Quadrangle.
Pete DiPrimio is an award-winning writer and author. He has
written two books on IU basketball and one on IU baseball. He
lives in Bloomington, Ind.
TRUE GOLD
DIGITIZING THE GOLDEN BOOK TO MEET 21ST-CENTURY NEEDS
INDIANA UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
Center manager is in the Memorial Union, which is several
times a semester while teaching a Veterans Experience class,
he stops by to check out the Golden Book.
“We do a tour of the Union and look at the Golden Book,”
he says. “I sometimes take my (McNutt) RA staff there. They’ll say they’ve
glanced in the room before, but never
knew what it was. Part of my job is telling the rest of the university this place
exists.”
Summerlot, a Mississippi State graduate working on an advanced degree in
education at IU, digs to find the Golden
Book stories people want to hear. He
researches university archives, ROTC
archives, library files, and anything else
he can find.
“John has spent more time than anybody I know looking at all the various
pieces and files,” says Margaret Baechtold of IU’s Veterans Affairs Office.
Adds Summerlot: “Many of the stories
come out through digging. A lot of them
were put into files and sat there until
they were turned over to the archives.
You find them while looking through a
Col. Lucien
Greathouse
letter here, a newspaper clipping there.”
Summerlot is a former Marine who
served in Kuwait in the 1990s. He’s passionate about military history and IU’s role in it.
“At a university that sometimes struggles with its role
involving the military, government, and war,” he says, “the
Golden Book is a good reminder that there still is that respect
and appreciation for those who have provided the opportunities and security that’s necessary for a place like Indiana
University to exist.”
One of those to appreciate was Richard Owen, an IU
professor of geology who became a Union colonel in the
Civil War. In 1862 he was put in charge of Camp Morton, a
prisoner of war camp outside of Indianapolis. He treated his
4,000 prisoners with respect and dignity, actions that were not
duplicated at other Union prisons.
After the war, when the Confederate soldiers returned
home and heard about the mistreatment of other captured
soldiers, they decided to honor Owen by commissioning a
bronze bust in his honor. Sculpted by Belle Kinney, it depicts
Owen in a Union military uniform with his arms folded across
his chest, looking to the right, stern but fair.
The original bust was dedicated in 1913, two years after his
death, and is in the Indiana State Capitol in Indianapolis. A
replica is in a Memorial Union entryway near the Memorial
Room.
And then there was the Tommygun. That’s short for the
Thompson submachine gun, one of the most popular weapons
used by criminals and police during the Prohibition era. It
was invented by John T. Thompson in 1919 and was originally
The Golden Book has met the golden computer age. Is that a good thing?
You’d better believe it.
Indiana University officials have digitized the more than 10,000 names in the
50-year-old-plus book that lists everyone with an IU affiliation who served in
military action ranging from the War of 1812 to World War II.
Harold B. (Pete) Goldsmith, the IUB dean of students, is the driving force behind
the project. Every page will be digitally photographed. Completion of the project
was celebrated on Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
Baechtold says plans include a new Golden Book that would include the names
of those who served in wars after World War II.
“It’s a long-term project,” she says. “We have significant funding needs, but we’d
love to see the old version and a new volume with (Internet) links to stories and
places about the individuals named in there.
“Some of the World War II veterans have their stories as part of the Oral History
Margaret Baechtold of IU’s Veteran Affairs Office says the goal is to have “a
computer display so people can browse through the book. We haven’t been
through the whole book because it’s old and fragile. We’ll have more access to
the names once it’s all been digitized.”
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Project in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. We’d like to link their stories
that are recorded there. There are lots of great ideas, but the first step is to get the
book more accessible to individuals who want to see what’s in it.”
To understand what they can now see means understanding the impetus behind the
book’s creation. At the turn of the 20th century, national interest grew to remember
Civil War veterans. Around 1910 IU officials expanded that interest — as part of
their overall fundraising drive to build the Memorial Union, Memorial Hall, and
Memorial Stadium — to create a list of every IU student and employee who had
served in a war. That included David Hervey Maxwell, the first president of IU’s
board of trustees and a veteran of the War of 1812.
“They started collecting
information,” researcher
John Summerlot says,
“and went back to
the founding of the
university. Folks who
graduated in the 1820s
and who served in the
Black Hawk War in
the 1830s.”
School officials eventually developed a list of
names that they put on
the back of commencement programs. But
after World War I, when
the list grew to more
than 30 pages, officials
considered putting the names into a permanent book.
Nothing happened until the 1950s when IU President Herman Wells, BS’24, MA’27,
LLD’62, pushed for it, “so people can read the names of the sons and daughters
of Indiana University who have fought in the wars of the republic.”
By then the list had reached more than 10,000 names, covering the War of 1812,
the Black Hawk War, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War,
the Philippines Insurrection, the Mexican Border Expedition, and both world wars.
The list was stored on index cards that filled at least 10 shoeboxes. Bloomington
elementary school teacher Dee Rockwood, MS’79, an experienced calligrapher, was
hired to write the names in script in what is now called the Golden Book. Rockwood
wrote in the Meadowood Anthology (she and her husband, Chuck, live there) that
the six-month project was “quite difficult and time consuming.” She wrote that she’d
work one or two hours a night “until my hand cramped or my eyes began to see
double.” Rockwood earned a thousand dollars for the project, and used the money
to buy new carpeting for her living room.
INDIANA ALUMNI MAGA ZINE
Austrian count and used them in his Meridian Street home.
They were donated by Mr. and Mrs. H. Frederick Willkie, who
bought Tarkington’s home after he died in 1946.
On the floor is a bronze plaque with the inscription, “In
memory of the sons and daughters of Indiana University who
have served in the wars of the Republic.” Tradition says no one
should step on the plaque.
There is also a portrait of William Lowe Bryan, IU’s president
from 1902 to 1937. It was under his leadership that the drive
to build the Memorial Union was proposed and completed in
1932. The digital display of the Golden Book sits beneath the
portrait of Bryan, across the room from the printed book.
At one time the Golden Book was left open and its pages turned
daily. Now it is preserved in a locked glass case. K — P.D.
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T YA G A N M I L L E R
The book, which rests on a base made from a hand-carved
mantle from an old Roman palace, is displayed in the Memorial Room (dedicated in 1969), which is located across from
Starbucks in the Memorial Union.
The room includes a pair of religious-themed stained glass
windows. One, titled “The Flight into Egypt,” shows Mary,
Joseph, and the baby Jesus riding a donkey and is estimated
to be more than 700 years old. The other, called “The Epiphany
or Adoration of the Kings,” is more than 500 years old. Both
came from Indianapolis Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Booth
Tarkington, who acquired them from the collection of an