By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS – Both living members involved in creating Kincheloe Memorial Park beside M-60 in Penn Township in the center of Cass County, Dr. Fred L. Mathews and Vance Ferguson, attended Saturday afternoon's second rededication.
Astronaut Jack Lousma participated in the first rededication in 1984.
When Mathews arrived in Dowagiac in 1952, Kincheloe had just become a war ace in Korea.
"His great courage and heroism caught the attention of the imagination not only of those who knew him growing up, but those like me, who knew him only from newspaper accounts," Mathews said.
In 1956, when Kincheloe became the first person to fly above 100,000 feet to the edge of outer space, "His fame spread across this nation," said Mathews, Southwestern Michigan College Board of Trustees chairman.
Mathews served on a committee that included Co-Chair Bertha Anthony and Berenice Vanderburg of Dowagiac, Co-Chair Marion Ritter and George Maddox of Cassopolis, Don Marlin of Howard Township and Ferguson, of Benton Harbor.
The panel succeeded in having Bell Aircraft donate the stainless steel model of the X-2 airplane which Kincheloe flew to the fringe of outer space. The model tops the monument.
Mrs. Ritter purchased the parcel from the state highway department and donated it to the committee.
Ferguson, owner of a cemetery memorial company, persuaded a nationally-renowned architect William Henry Dacey to design the Indiana limestone monument, which cost $2,462.
"This amount, a lot of money back then, was raised locally by private donations," Mathews said.
The completed monument was installed, ironically, on Nov. 22, 1963 – the same day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
The site was deeded to Penn Township, which has mowed and maintained it through the years.
Supervisor John K. Gore agreed to carry on this care in the future.
In the mid-1970s Mathews began corresponding with Kincheloe's mother, Frances Crane, in California. "Over the years our friendship resulted in Mrs. Crane bringing and sending memorabilia related to the life and career of Capt. Kincheloe." Those items now reside in the SMC museum.
In 1975, when the Pentagon announced plans to close Kincheloe Air Force Base in the Upper Peninsula, Mathews asked Mrs. Crane to write a letter of introduction to its commanding officer and corresponded with the colonel to request the donation of Kincheloe memorabilia to SMC. Mathews was invited to the base in 1977 along with then-President Dr. Russell "M" Owen and Vice Chairman Dale Lyons. "From that effort, we were able to secure an impressive list of memorabilia. The crown jewel of that collection is a large oil portrait of Capt. Kincheloe which hung in the officers club. In 1988, Mrs. Crane sent us a check for $5,000 to start an Iven Kincheloe scholarship fund for pre-engineering students at Southwestern Michigan College. In December of 2000 the college received another check for $5,000 from the estate of Frances Kincheloe Crane. As of July 1, 2006, the Iven Kincheloe scholarship fund at SMC had a balance of $24,000. Since only 80 percent of the interest earned is spent each year, the scholarship will continue into perpetuity as another memorial to Iven Kincheloe. Donations to this memorial are encouraged."