Art Scene: Veterans Memorial honors generations of fallen heroes
The Veterans Memorial on Northeastern’s Boston campus honors more than 400 students and graduates who died serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Artist: Mark Roehrle, Mo Zell and Steve Fellmeth
Materials: Black granite wall with stainless steel plates
Location: Centennial Way at Neal F. Finnegan Plaza, Boston campus
About: The Northeastern Veterans Memorial honors more than 400 students and graduates who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Set along Centennial Way at Neal F. Finnegan Plaza on the Boston campus, the memorial features a long black granite wall inlaid with stainless steel plates designed to resemble military dog tags.
Each plate includes the service member’s name, rank, hometown, birth date, college affiliation, graduation year and date of death.
The memorial spans more than a century of U.S. military conflicts, from World War I to Iraq and Afghanistan. It recognizes students and graduates whose lives were cut short in service, placing their stories at the heart of campus.
The project was dedicated in 2006 and funded by Neal Finnegan, a 1961 Northeastern graduate and chair emeritus of the university’s Board of Trustees. It was designed by a team of architects deeply connected to the university.
Mark Roehrle and Mo Zell, a husband-and-wife duo who taught in Northeastern’s School of Architecture, collaborated with Steve Fellmeth, a longtime faculty member and former student of Zell’s. The designers merged architectural precision with emotional weight, creating a space that quietly commands attention.