This imposing black granite monument is situated in Rockafield Cemetery. The inscription reads: "In gratitude... To those who gave unselfishly of themselves that others might learn."

The Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine was founded in 1973 and the Donated Body Program was implemented in 1975. In 1994, the name of the program was changed to the Anatomical Gift Program to better reflect the generosity of the donors.

The first person to register in the Program was a physician who was the founding chair of the Department of Anatomy. Dr. Antonio Zappala has since passed away in his native Brazil. Since Dr. Zappala, the number of registered donors has increased to well over 15,000 caring, giving people.

U.S. flags mark individual interment sites along the brick walkway at the entrance to Rockafield Cemetery. The first grave site may be seen immediately in front of the monument in the center of the walkway that encircles the cemetery.

As the program has matured, new elements have been added to it. Donors are now honored annually in a memorial service to which family members and friends are invited. The service is typically conducted in the Judeo-Christian tradition by clergy who encompass both gender and ethnic diversity. When donors from other religious traditions are honored, clergy representative of these other traditions are also invited to participate.

The Rockafield Cemetery on the university campus marks the location of the graves of the original owners of the Wright State University property. This cemetery has been expanded, relandscaped and developed; here are interred and memorialized the cremated remains of donors whose decision it was to be interred on the campus rather than in a private cemetery or mausoleum. A beautifully polished, black granite monument has been placed in this cemetery to recognize and honor the donors interred there.

A brick walkway has been installed in the cemetery, and we have implemented a program to make available to our donors' families and friends the opportunity to have the names of their loved ones inscribed on individual bricks as another form of recognition of their generosity. Grateful medical school classes have purchased bricks bearing the names of those persons whose remains enabled their medical educations. On Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, tribute is paid to the veterans of the United States Armed Forces with the placement of veteran markers and American flags on each interment site.

At the entrance to the cemetery is a bronze plaque reminding all visitors that the names of all anatomical donors to the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine are recorded in leather-bound volumes in the Special Collections Room of the Fordham Health Sciences Library in the Medical Sciences Building.

For more information about the Anatomical Gift Program, please contact:
Frank Nagy, Ph.D., Director
Anatomical Gift Program Office
108 White Hall
Boonshoft School of Medicine
Wright State University
3640 Col. Glenn Hwy.
Dayton, OH 45435

Phone: (937) 775-3066
Fax: (937) 775-3417
e-mail: frank.nagy@wright.edu