MU yearbook dedication to the 75 who perished

       Editor’s Note: In the 1971 edition of Marshall University’s yearbook, the Chief Justice, yearbook staff member Wayne Faulkner wrote the following dedication in recognition of those who died in the plane crash on November 14, 1970. MU lost most of its football team, coaching staff and several school administrators. Also on board were MU athletic boosters and a number of Huntington, West Virginia’s prominent citizens – doctors, lawyers, business people and civic leaders.

Sometimes we must face a change in our environment.

One that is very personal —

One that may be quite emotional.

It is difficult; it is slow;

The new road is filled with many pitfalls.

Death has made her impression on us all;

She may leave during happy hours soaked with beer,

Or, in wild moments of blaring rock,

Or, in the comfort of a humorous book.

Yet she has seen fit to keep her presence known

Known is a way we shall find comfort.

For when we smell smoke in the air and leaves are falling;

When the autumn sun shines and crowds roar 

against the vivid background of green;

When we taste the ozone bitter of the brass horn crying,

And the hazy hills echo the cheers,

Death will casually appear to us as memory 

in seventy-five familiar faces.