Veterans' Memorial Project

Charles LeRoy Gustafson

Boone, IA

World War I

Captain Gustafson was an Illinois graduate AND a University faculty/staff member in the Architecture Office. He took a military leave. He was killed in an airplane accident in France.
Excerpt from newspaper clipping: Captain Gustafson enrolled at the University of Illinois in 1908 and graduated in architecture in 1912. He worked one year in Champaign and then took a position at the University of Illinois working in architecture. Captain Gustafson enlisted about the middle of September, 1917 and took an examination for a commission on October 6. He passed and received a commission as a First Lieutenant, Construction Division, aero service. He sailed to France on November 27, 1917. There he was in charge of construction work at the largest American flying field located at Issoudun, France. After project completion he was made Commanding Officer of a squadron of men whose duties were to assemble and repair airplanes. At the end of 10 months, he was made Adjutant and sent to Chatillon-sur-Seine, France, where he was located at the time of the airplane accident. Captain Gustafson and 2 other crew members were killed. Gustafson was acting as observer. A funeral was held at Chatillon-sur-Seine on February 22, 1919, where the bodies were buried in American Cemetery No. 454 at Chatillon. Gustafson’s grave is number 605. Services were later held at his home town of Boone, Iowa, and he has a memorial at Linwood Park Cemetery, Boone, Iowa.

-taken from University and public records