Gillis, Ezra L., 1867-1958

Memorial Coliseum was completed in 1950 as a war memorial for the 9,265 Kentuckians who were killed in World War II. UK Registrar Ezra L. Gillis directed the Kentucky War Memorial Survey project, compiling the names of Kentucky's war dead to be inscribed on the walls of Memorial Coliseum. Gillis was active in the preparation of lists of UK war dead from each war: World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. He also gathered biographical data relating to the veterans' war service. The information was used in the preparation of honor rolls placed in Memorial Coliseum, which were lettered, at least for World War I and II, by UK drawing professor John Sherman Horine and for a special edition of the "Kentucky Alumnus" published in 1947.