November 11, 2026
When retired Lt. Col. Jake Miller arrived at RPI in 2022 as commander of the Air Force ROTC Detachment 550, he noticed something missing from the memorial plaques lining the Louis Rubin Memorial Approach.
The memorials honored RPI alumni who gave their lives in service during World Wars I and II. But graduates who served and lost their lives in subsequent conflicts, from Korea and Vietnam onward, had no corresponding tribute.
What began as a conversation about adding a plaque soon grew into a much larger undertaking: identifying those alumni and ensuring they were remembered. The effort would eventually bring together students, alumni, archivists, and ROTC leaders.
Leading the research were cadets Aaron Verkleeren ’26, Christian Blanco ’28, Ben Colello ’27, Jake Hascup ’28, Aryaman Tomar ’27, and then-cadet Jack Gandolfini ’26, now a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. They were joined by biomedical engineering student Eyenain Misgar ’27, computer science student Sherlyn Wu ’28, and Lander Linen, a doctoral student in the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology.
The team initially searched military casualty records, developing scripts to compare names against RPI alumni records. But the results were incomplete, and they knew a lot of names were missing.
A breakthrough came when former Rensselaer Alumni Association President Don Burgio ’89 directed the students to RPI’s Institute Archives and Special Collections. Archivists Jenifer Monger and Matt Golebiewski digitized and organized historical records, including more than 900 pages of commencement programs dating from the 1940s through the 2000s.
Cadets spent months in the Archives reviewing alumni magazines, yearbooks, student publications, ROTC records, and other materials.
“It was a lot of brute force,” said Verkleeren, a graduate student in aerospace engineering and Air Force ROTC cadet. “We just brought a bunch of cadets in there and pretty much read through all the records.”
The search gradually became more personal. The materials revealed brief biographies, military ranks, and stories shared by classmates and family members.
“In the beginning, it was just names,” Verkleeren said. “But finding their stories of where they had been and the people they'd interacted with gave the project a more personal tie.”
For Monger, seeing students engage with the Archives and uncover connections that might otherwise have remained buried was especially rewarding. “This is one of the best examples of why what we do is so important,” she said. “Seeing this kind of impact is what matters to us.”
To date, the effort has identified more than 70 alumni whose names will be included on a new plaque, tentatively planned for installation on the Approach in spring 2027. The design will also leave room for future names, allowing the memorial to reflect the continued service of members of the RPI community.
“They were people who were in our same shoes,” Verkleeren said. “It's important to make sure that they're not forgotten.”
To learn more about and support the project, visit the RPI Giving website.