idav, November
IDAYNOVEMBER 16, 2001
Texas A&M University — Celebrating 125 Years
1 SECTION • 12 PAGES
“Students don’t want to have to relive it again and again. Students just want to get through it in their
own way and not go through another big ceremony and not relive those painful memories.”
— Schuyler Houser, student body president
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Families, students to hold
personal vigils on Polo Fields
By Sommer Bunge
THE BATTALION
The crowd of students gathered on the Polo Fields at 2:42 a.m.
Nov. 18, 2000, was not much different than the Aggies who stood
there a year before. They had a love for Aggie Bonfire and they
shared a commitment to a University and a way of life that had
shaped, and then in 1999 changed, Aggie lives.
The difference in 2000 was that the Aggie family was 12 members
short. They stood in the mud and cold rain, a sea of Bonfire pots held
over hearts, looking through to the central flame to memorialize the
victims of the 1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse.
Though the University will make no official observation this Sunday
of the second anniversary of Bonfire’s collapse, the families and friends
of the 12 Aggies killed and 27 injured when the three-tiered stack fell
to the ground said they cannot and will not ever forget.
The families said they will have their own memorials.
Christopher David Breen spent the evening of Nov. 17, 1999, with
his brother and his father watching the sunset from his brother’s back
porch. Breen, a 1997 A&M graduate active in building Bonfire while
he was a student, was
working on the stack
when it groaned and fell
in seven frantic seconds
early the next morning,
and was killed.
Breen’s brother Sean
Breen, an Austin attor
ney, said the family will
gather on his back porch
in the hills outside of
Austin this Saturday,
Nov. 17, to watch the
sunset and to remember
Chris’ last sunset two
years before.
“It was the last time
we saw Chris alive,”
he said.
Breen said the family
will always come
together on the date of
Chris’ death.
Janice and Timothy
Kerlee Sr. lost their only
son, Timothy Doran
Kerlee Jr., 42 hours after
the stack he hung from
in a safety belt toppled. The Kerlees left their home in Memphis,
Tenn., and arrived at the hospital just as Tim Jr., a \7-year-old Corps
of Cadets freshman, emerged from surgery. Doctors told the Kerlees
he had almost died three times on the surgeon’s table.
Janice Kerlee said she had been given the chance to say goodbye
to her son in the time she and her husband spent with Tim Jr. before
he died at 8 p.m., Nov. 19, 1999. The Kerlees soon moved to
College Station, called by God, Janice Kerlee said, to begin the
healing process at A&M.
The Kerlees are active members of the A&M community and now
serve in college ministries at the A&M United Methodist Church. This
summer, the couple hosted two students from their son’s Corps outfit
who needed to attend summer school but could not afford rent for an
apartment.
Janice Kerlee said this week has been one of the hardest since the
collapse.
“You’ll cry a lot, and it’s very emotional,” she said. “Any anniver
sary of death is hard.”
The Kerlees will be at the site of the 1999 Bonfire at 2:42 a.m.
Sunday morning with candles and prayers. Other families will be
there, Janice Kerlee said, and she expects that some students, mostly
juniors and seniors who knew the victims and who were on campus
when Bonfire fell, also will be there, silently holding their own vigils
and singing “Amazing Grace.”
FILE PHOTO • THE BATTALION
Aggies held candlelight remembrances on the
Polo Fields Nov. 25, 1999 and Nov. 18, 2000.
CODYWAGES • THE BATTALION
The 1998 Aggie Bonfire was the most recent student-organized Bonfire and burned Nov.
24, 1998 — the Tuesday before the University of Texas-Texas A&M football game.
Families: A&M should have memorial
By Sommer Bunge
THE BATTALION
all
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Families of the victims of the 1999
Aggie Bonfire collapse said they are
lisappointed that Texas A&M admin
istrators chose not to have an official
memorial service on the two-year
anniversary of the collapse this
Sunday.
Administrators announced in early
ctober that the University was not
holding a memorial service on Nov. 18.
Instead, Student Body President
Schuyler Houser said, students would
individually remember the collapse
victims.
“Students don’t want to have to
relive it again and again,” Houser said
in October. “Students just want to get
through it in their own way and not go
through another big ceremony and
relive those painful memories.”
The families said memories are all
they have.
Janice Kerlee, mother of Bonfire
victim Timothy Kerlee, Jr., said she and
other families were saddened that the
University has not planned a memorial
service.
“I was hoping it would become a
University tradition,” she said. “It still
may continue, through the students, but
I know we and a lot of parents are dis
appointed.”
The A&M Traditions Council hand
ed out more than 40,000 candles to stu
dents attending the memorial held last
year on the Polo Fields at the site of the
Nov. 18, 1999 collapse.
Students began gathering shortly
after midnight in the cold rain for the
ceremony that began at 2:42 a.m., the
time Bonfire fell in 1999. Ten of the 12
victims’ families were present that
night, and the other two families were
represented by close friends.
Before the service last year, Neva
Hand, mother of Bonfire victim
Jamie Hand, told reporters that the
families needed to share the moment
with students.
“The collapse was shared by thou
sands of people,” Hand said. “There’s
nothing that helps the grieving more than
to receive support from people who care.”
Janice Kerlee said she blames the lack
of an official observation this year on the
See Families on page 2.
Bonfire
ready
to burn
Students build
off-campus fire
By BRANDIE LiFFICK
THE BATTALION
An off-campus Bonfire
not sanctioned by Texas
A&M has been built at an
undisclosed location and will
burn within the next week,
said Kevin Jackson, one of
the organizers of the project
and a junior engineering
major and.
“It will be burned soon,”
Jackson said.
Jackson, a former resident
of Hotard Hall, said partici
pants are a combination of
current and former students,
and are not associated with
any University group.
“This is not a Bonfire
endorsed by Hotard Hall or
any residence hall singular
ly,” Jackson said.
Jackson said the cut
process started approximate
ly four weeks ago, but plan
ning started when University
President Dr. Ray M. Bowen
postponed Bonfire in June of
2000, after the 1999 Aggie
Bonfire collapse that killed
1 1 students and one former
student.
Jackson said the structure
resembles a “lean-to,” with a
centerpole and logs leaned
and secured against it.
Although Jackson would
not reveal the location or
dimensions of the stack, he
said it was “puny” compared
to the 1997 Bonfire.
“It’s like the size of an
adolescent child compared to
an adult,” Jackson said.
On Tuesday, Director of
Residence Life Ron Sasse
announced that rumors of an
off-campus Bonfire built by
Hotard Hall residences had
been investigated by
Residence Life and that the
search turned up nothing.
Schuyler Houser, student
body president and a member
of the 2002 Bonfire Planning
Committee, said an off-cam
pus Bonfire might possibly
impede the planning process
for a University-approved,
on-campus fire.
“I really don’t know what
effect this will have on
Bonfire 2002,” Houser said.
“It will certainly open discus
sion that could set back the
process. I hope that students
are considering all the ramifi
cations of this.”
Jackson said safety and
leadership were emphasized
in the building process of
the stack.
“Safety was the major
thing,” Jackson said. “The
plans were approved by a
professional engineer. There
was an absolute zero toler
ance of drinking. Everybody
was monitored at all times.
See Off Campus on page 2.