ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 14, 1996 TAG: 9610140110
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press
THEY FEEL SO STRONGLY about the university that they're signing up by the dozens to have their cremated remains stay there forever.
In the University of Virginia's quaint but crowded historic cemetery, alumni and faculty have found a new way to show allegiance to their beloved school.
They're signing up by the dozens for a space in the Columbarium, an elongated 5-foot-tall granite wall with 180 hollow vaults, each holding up to four urns full of cremated ashes.
``I love the University of Virginia, and I want to be as proximate as possible,'' said Charlottesville attorney Leigh Middleditch Jr., an alumnus who came up with the idea for the monument about a decade ago.
``It was very parochial with me,'' said Middleditch, 67, a former member of the board of visitors. ``I wanted to be buried in the university cemetery, and there were no plots left.''
UVa's 3-acre cemetery, tucked behind low stone walls and tall weeping oak trees near Alderman and McCormick roads, dates back to 1828, three years after the university opened.
One hundred and fifty-eight years later, the cemetery is almost filled with hundreds of graves of faculty and their families, some early students and alumni. Any remaining plots are reserved.
Middleditch, taking a cue from Episcopal church graveyards, suggested a columbarium as a way to accommodate a lot of remains in a small space.
The board of visitors approved the idea in 1990, and the university began selling spaces. The first half of a wall that eventually will hold 360 vaults was built by Charlottesville architect and UVa alumnus Jack Rinehart in 1991.
So far, 18 sets of cremated remains lie in the Columbarium. About 82 of the vaults have been reserved, 35 of them by UVa alumni. Some of these UVa graduates and their families live as far away as New England, Florida and Colorado. UVa officials declined to release their names.
David Gies, a professor of Spanish, purchased one of the first vaults with his wife, Mary Jo. She died at age 44 of complications from diabetes; her ashes are in the Columbarium.
``It's the feeling of being associated with the university, of being identified with the university and being in a very beautiful setting,'' said Gies, 45. ``Both of us really identified very strongly with UVa.''
UVa officials said the privately built Columbarium is no moneymaking venture. Each vault costs $1,400, which goes toward the cost of the structure and its upkeep.
Faculty, former faculty and their families, UVa alumni, friends and students are eligible for the Columbarium, but only on the basis of distinguished service to the university, according to UVa policy. An Alumni Board of Managers and a group called the Cemetery Committee are charged with making the determination.
Dr. Dearing Johns, an associate professor of medicine and chairman of the Cemetery Committee, said no one has been turned away.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 linesby CNB