Photos taken by Tana Burkhart, Kaitlin Barnett, Megan Murphy, Emilee Kuschel, and Dexter Ballay
Video prepared by Emilee Kuschel and Dexter Ballay
Story by Megan Murphy
Editor-in-Chief
On the 76th anniversary of the dedication of Camp Crowder, campus faculty, students and members of the public attended a ceremony to commemorate the late Mort Walker, who is best known for his cartoon strip Beetle Bailey. Many of Walker’s experiences in the Army provided inspiration for Beetle Bailey, including Camp Crowder.
“I remember reading the [Beetle Bailey] strips with my great grandpa who served in the war,” said Iris Wormington, animal science major. “So it brings everything home and commemorates Crowder for me.”
Although Walker spent only a short time at Camp Crowder before moving on, it served as the inspiration for the comic strip’s setting. After an incident in which the base flooded and soldiers had to use sandbags to mitigate the situation, “Camp Swampy” was used as a nickname for Camp Crowder, later becoming the name of the base where Beetle Bailey is set.
“[Walker] was denied his first handful of publications,” said Keith Zoromski, division chair of the social sciences history department. “But he had a note on his drawing desk that said ‘I will not be denied.’ For Crowder students, if you’re willing to make the effort, you won’t be denied an education.”
Cindy Branscum, former Director of Institutional Advancement at Crowder, Rodney Bechdoldt from Boy Scout Troop 34 and local historian and author Kay Hively all shared personal anecdotes of their interactions with Walker.
During her time at Crowder, Branscum commissioned a short comic strip from Walker showing characters from Beetle Bailey looking on as Crowder changed from Army base to college campus. She spoke on the phone to Walker several times over the process of creating the comic.
“[He was] a neat man who stayed with it and was very active and family-oriented,” said Branscum.
Bechdoldt described Troop 34’s history with Camp Crowder and Mort Walker. In 1991, the Boy Scouts held their district “camporee” at Camp Crowder for the first time. Over the years, they have held the event at Camp Crowder several times, including in 2013 and 2017. Bechdoldt had spoken with Walker’s cartoonists about using Beetle Bailey and Camp Swampy art for their troop.
Hively spoke about the creation of her book, Red Hot and Dusty, which covers the history of Camp Crowder. According to Hively, the book started out as her graduate school thesis paper, but local interest in her work caused her to decide to publish it for distribution purposes. She chose a military theme for the cover of the book, and contacted Walker to draw the cover art.
There’s a lot of history,” Wormington said. “I don’t think a lot of kids get to say they went to a school with as much history as Crowder has.”
There was also a ribbon cutting celebrating the purchase of some items from Mort Walker’s personal collection for the Herb and Barbara Schade Rare Books Collection in the Lee Library. At the end of the ceremony, a moment of silence was held in memory of Mort Walker.
Leave a Reply