Silver Taps will be held at Texas A&M University Tuesday (Nov 1) to honor the memory of Jacob Brent Hughes, who died in a car accident Sept. 18.

Hughes, a senior wildlife ecology conservation major, was from Center.

silver taps statueOn the day of the ceremony, all campus flags are flown at half-staff and the names of those to be remembered are posted at the base of the flagpole in the Academic Plaza. The family of the student or students to be honored is notified of the ceremony and sent a floral arrangement by university officials.

In honor of the memory of Hughes, 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 to honor the memory of these students. Buglers from the Aggie Band, unseen in the darkness, will play a special arrangement of “Taps.” The tolling of the Albritton Tower bells will signal the end of the ceremony.

In case of rain or dangerous lightning, the ceremony will be moved to Duncan Dining Hall. Free parking in the University Center garage will be available between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m.

The first Silver Taps was held in 1898 upon the death of the university’s president, Lawrence Sullivan Ross, and it has changed little from that time.