By Jim Hardin

Herald-Banner Staff

Plano intern architect Dan Fletcher’s entry — Symbolic Journey — was a design jury’s top choice in the Rockwall County Veterans Memorial design contest.

The winning entry was revealed last Monday night during a Rockwall County Commissioners Court workshop. The meeting was attended by about 50 people, mostly veterans.

County commissioners, design jury representatives and members of the audience discussed Fletchers’s design during the workshop. Commissioners discussed the design again last Tuesday morning during another workshop meeting.

Commissioners cannot vote during workshop meetings, but they were expected to consider approving the design concept during a regular meeting at 9 a.m. Monday.

“The court wishes to work with Mr. Fletcher to further refine the design and drill down into specific issues such as maintenance, cost, materials, etc.,” Commissioner Lorie Grinnan said Tuesday in an e-mail to members of the design jury and interested residents. “Then, the commissioners court will resubmit the refined design to the design jury for their consideration and input.”

Fletcher is a graduate of Texas A&M; University with a master’s degree in architecture. He’s an intern architect for SHW Group in Plano. He still has tests to take for his professional license.

The veterans memorial will be constructed on the site of the planned Rockwall County Courthouse. There were 10 entries in the veterans memorial design contest.

With his entry, Fletcher wrote that the memorial represents the loss of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom.

“It is a mere rift in the ground plane; a void that draws the visitor in,” Fletcher wrote. “Each visitor embarks on a journey whose destination is a space for contemplation, remembrance and reflection upon the lives given in the service of duty, honor and country.”

In a description of his design, Fletcher wrote that the memorial is designed to complement the courthouse design.

“A subtle deviation in the ground plane gives the memorial a separate space to acquire its own identity without competing with the form of the courthouse,” Fletcher wrote.

He said in the narrative portion of his entry that visitors to the memorial will enter by descending into an impression seven feet below the ground.

“The resulting space is isolated from the commotion of traffic and public circulation, lending itself towards an atmosphere of contemplation and introspection,” he wrote.

A terraced green and a small gathering of trees “establish a connection with nature, the renewal of life and hope, and reveal the passing of time through the seasons,” Fletcher wrote.

“A subtle line of light is embedded in the plaza along the visitors’ path which become symbolic of the line crossed by the many who are called to service and transition from citizen to soldier,” he wrote. “The visitors’ journey is culminated upon reaching a wall of polished stone, where they become participants in the memorial as they see the image of themselves and the images of those around them and reflect on the memory of the fallen.”

The “line of light” grabbed the attention of veterans who spoke during the Monday night workshop.

“Some of the symbolism here, the line of light, is really important for veterans, stepping across, going from a citizen to a uniformed member of the military service. That’s really important,” said Robert Smith of Rockwall, a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Navy and a member of the design jury.

“The reason for that is that it’s a contract that all of us signed up to live by when we raised our right hand and were sworn in to military service. It’s the only employment contract in the nation that requires you not only to give loyal service to this country, but it requires you to include up and to your life if your commander asks you for it. So you’ve sworn that you’re not going to turn and run. You’ve sworn that you’re going to give your life or whatever the outcome may be. And that’s what that line here symbolizes.”

Smith and other speakers described the proposed memorial as “powerful.”

“This design is extremely, extremely powerful,” Smith said. “It really captures the warrior’s spirit of all these veterans. And that’s important.”

Speakers also expressed their approval of the planned inscription on a wall of granite at the site. The inscription is a letter that Abraham Lincoln sent to Mrs. Bixby, the mother of five sons who had died “gloriously on the field of battle.”

The part of the letter that would be inscribed on the wall is as follows:

“I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.”

Members of the veterans memorial advisory committee — veterans from all parts of Rockwall County — were Gayle Adcock, Bob Amik, Bick Asberry, Raymond Cameron, Tom Crowley, Lee Gilbert, Ralph Hall, David Hill, Bob Laing, Odis Lowe, Ray McNeil, J.C. Petty, Robert Smith, Elmer Stone and Darwin Whiteside.

Design jury members were veterans Jeff Allison, Amik, Asberry, Crowley, Gilbert, Hall, Smith and Ken Watterson; architects Patricia Magadini and Steve Seitz; community members Dewayne Cain and Connie Christenson; and county commissioners Grinnan and David Magness.

Grinnan and Magness headed up the design contest.

At the end of the workshop, Grinnan expressed her thanks to Fletcher and to all who submitted entries.

“You presented multiple options,” she said. “It was really rewarding to see that you were willing to donate that much time and effort into a project that obviously became near and dear, and we really appreciate all the entries.”