Texas A&M University’s solemn Silver Taps ceremony will be held Tuesday, March 1 to honor the memory of Nicolis “Nico” Terrel Williams, the junior economics major from Houston who died Feb. 11 from meningitis.
Texas A&M holds the Silver Taps ceremony each month as necessary to honor the memory of recently deceased students. Tuesday’s ceremony will begin at 10:30 p.m. in the plaza area in front of the Academic Building.
On the day of the ceremony, all campus flags are flown at half-staff and a list of the names of those to be remembered is posted at the base of the flagpole in the Academic Plaza. The families of those being honored are notified of the ceremony and sent floral arrangements by university officials.
The campus will be darkened at 10:20 p.m. In the darkness, students, family and friends will silently gather in the plaza in front of the Academic Building. At 10:30 p.m. an honor guard from the Ross Volunteer Company will march across campus from the Corps of Cadets area to the plaza, where its members will fire three rifle volleys. Buglers from the Aggie Band, unseen in the darkness, will play a special arrangement of “Taps.” The tolling of Albritton Tower bells will signal the end of the ceremony.
In case of rain or dangerous lightning, the ceremony will be moved to an alternate location. Free parking in the University Center garage will be available between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. For more information, go to http://studentaffairs.tamu.edu/sas/silvertaps.
The first Silver Taps was held in 1898 upon the death of the university’s president, Lawrence Sullivan Ross, and has changed little from that time.
At the time of his death, the Williams family asked that memorial gifts in memory of Nicolis Williams be directed to the Texas A&M Foundation. For additional information, call (979) 845-3113.
