Fifteen Years After Its Restoration, Military Walk Takes Aggies on a Walk Back in Time

Military Walk was fading into obscurity in the 21st century—until Dr. Robert Gates took a weekend stroll around campus.

By Dorian Martin '06

Historical images provided by Cushing Memorial Library and Archives

September 2, 2025

Fittingly located next to the Rudder Tower and Theatre Complex, the statue of Gen. James Earl Rudder ’32 honors his visionary leadership as Texas A&M University’s 16th president. At the same time, the World War II hero’s likeness marks the southern point of Military Walk, a passage that countless Aggies—including Rudder—have historically used to traverse campus.

While Rudder’s legacy remains firmly established in Aggie lore, the resurrection of Military Walk’s prominence can be credited to one of his successors, Dr. Robert Gates, who realized that the walk was fading into obscurity as the campus expanded. “With each successive generation of students, the past recedes, and people tend to forget,” Texas A&M’s 22nd president said. “It’s not a willful thing; it just happens unless there are visual reminders of that history and the values that the place stands for.”

I hope you will look at A. and M. College with the future in mind, visualizing as best you can how all of us as a team can improve this institution and how we can better serve the people of Texas, especially the youth of this state.”
–Gen. James Earl Rudder ’32

Marching Through History

Texas A&M has always treasured its history. In its early years, the university consisted of two buildings: Old Main and Gathright Hall. By the turn of the century, the campus had added four more buildings around a dirt road that served as Military Walk’s forerunner.

As plans for further expansion emerged in the early 1900s, Texas A&M architecture department head and former Corps of Cadets Commandant Frederick Giesecke, Class of 1886, proposed creating a formal concourse so the Corps could march to the mess hall located in Gathright. Giesecke’s vision led to the creation of the first formal iteration of the narrow-paved street known as Military Walk today.

Over the next decades, Giesecke’s vision guided much of Texas A&M’s campus planning as many new dormitories and buildings, including Sbisa Dining Hall, the Academic Building, the YMCA Building and Bolton Hall, were constructed in the area around Military Walk. As a result, the promenade became not only the campus’s main thoroughfare but also an assembly and parade area for the Corps.

However, the second half of the 20th century brought significant change to Texas A&M as the campus’s geographic footprint expanded while many older buildings along Military Walk were razed. Additionally, Rudder made key decisions to grow the university’s enrollment, including admission of female and Black students beginning in 1963. Two years later, participation in the Corps became voluntary.

These combined changes had a ripple effect on Military Walk. After Guion Hall—a large auditorium that served as the walk’s southern anchor—was demolished in 1971 to make way for Rudder Tower, university leaders decided to remake Military Walk into a green space with walkways. As a result, its prominence faded, leaving the mature live oak trees lining the thoroughfare as the primary witnesses to its storied past.

Modernizing a Hallowed Tradition

It was those trees that caught Gates’ attention in 2005. “Generally, on Friday and Saturday nights, I would go for a cigar walk around campus,” he said. “One night while walking, I realized that most of the trees that have lined Military Walk were still there, but it had just become another sidewalk.”

As university president, Dr. Robert Gates worked to elevate Texas A&M University nationally—adding faculty, boosting funding and leading major campus construction projects.

That led Gates to an “a-ha” moment: Texas A&M needed Military Walk as much as it needed state-of-the-art buildings. “We were in the process of making a lot of changes at Texas A&M while I was there,” he said. “I have always felt that institutions have to adapt and change, or they wither. But they also have to hang onto the traditions and core values that made them great in the first place.”

As a result, Gates commissioned a study on revitalizing Military Walk that recommended maintaining Giesecke’s design guidelines, preserving historic buildings and features, reinforcing the historical axis crossing of Old Main Drive, and creating a sense of arrival at the corridor’s key points. The proposal also envisioned reestablishing the promenade quality through retaining the live oak trees, creating interpretive signage and exhibits at the sites of original buildings, incorporating historic cornerstones and features, and reestablishing campus activities and traditions tied to Military Walk.

Gates also advocated relocating Rudder’s statue from Bizzell Hall to Military Walk’s south endpoint. “There’s probably little dispute that Earl Rudder was the most consequential president in the history of Texas A&M who turned it into a huge, modern university—not to mention his role in history as commander of the Rangers at Pointe du Hoc in World War II,” Gates said. “It seemed entirely fitting that the statue of Rudder anchor one end of Military Walk.”

Parading Into the Future

The Board of Regents didn’t approve the renovations before Gates resigned his Texas A&M presidency to serve as secretary of defense under President George W. Bush in 2006. Yet, the proposal remained alive thanks to Dr. Elsa Murano, Texas A&M’s 23rd president, and Dan A. Hughes ’51, whose $4 million gift allowed the restoration—including special paving, historic-looking lighting and seating areas near the displays—to proceed.

“As you travel along this walk, may you follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before with honor and optimism." -Dan A. Hughes '51, lead donor for the Military Walk restoration.

Military Walk was officially reopened during a restoration celebration on Sept. 11, 2010. The event included a parade by the 2,000-member Corps of Cadets and the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band, as well as remarks by Hughes, Gov. Rick Perry ’72, The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents Chairman Morris Foster ’65, Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin ’71, and Corps Commander David Keim ’11.

In the 15 years since that ceremony, many Aggies and visitors have traversed the revitalized walk. While some use the concourse to rush across campus, others—including Gates—have stopped to read the signage honoring the university’s history. “The renovation turned out exactly as I hoped and dreamed when we first started working on the proposal,” Gates said. “In a time of incredibly fast change, Military Walk is the most visible anchor for the university to its past and hopefully, many students on their way to class or the MSC will glance at some of those signs or sit on one of those benches to reflect on the Core Values. Military Walk invites Aggies to literally walk the talk.”