By Dee Richardson\/\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A mysterious plaque was discovered <\/a>in the ground between Smith Hall and the Coffman Chapel on Oct. 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plaque was revealed to be <\/a>a memorial plaque for Blaine Broadwater, <\/a>a longtime Hood College<\/a> business manager who died <\/a>in 1974. He worked at Hood from 1948 to 1974.<\/p>\n\n\n\n KayKay Redden, <\/a>a <\/a>senior at Hood, discovered the plaque as she was on <\/a>her way to work in the Admissions Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She first noticed an unusual circle in the grass in August during the first-year move-in, but she didn\u2019t investigate it until Oct. 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Redden crept closer to the unusual circle, <\/a>she noticed something protruding <\/a>out of the grass and swiped at it with <\/a>her <\/a>foot. It revealed what <\/a>she first thought to be <\/a>a headstone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI saw the name \u2018Blaine\u2019 and <\/a>a date,\u201d she recounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was enough to prompt Redden to tell\u00a0her\u00a0supervisor,\u00a0who, in turn,\u00a0notified campus<\/p>\n\n\n\n facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Facilities exhumed the plaque and cleaned it off before taking it to<\/a> archivist Mary Atwell to be examined. The plaque was so large that it required equipment to remove and transport it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I saw it, I tried to move it and I couldn’t lift it at all,\u201d Atwell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One staff member has <\/a>a background <\/a>in stonework and would be able to <\/a>chip away at the <\/a>concrete surrounding the plaque, Atwell says. Once the plaque is <\/a>a <\/a>manageable size, it will be moved to the archives in the library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Director of Advancement <\/a>Services Krista Schaffert, the plaque <\/a>cannot be reinstalled as there are pieces of it missing. It is suspected that <\/a>a lawn mower might have damaged it at some <\/a>point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to an article on the Hood website, the plaque was <\/a>a part of <\/a>a memorial blue spruce planted <\/a>behind Smith Hall in honor of Broadwater in 1979.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, the tree was <\/a>cut down recently. If one wants to see <\/a>an image of the tree, one could search Hood <\/a>College on <\/a>Google Maps and see it between Smith Hall and the Chapel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more information on Blaine Broadwater or Hood College memorial plaques, <\/a>in <\/a>general, contact Hood\u2019s <\/a>archivist Mary Atwell atwell@hood.edu<\/a> or Director of Advancement <\/a>Services Krista Schaffert schaffert@hood.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"