Bill Moyer on Friday will be enshrined in the manner in which he lived: thinking of others.
A 6-foot-tall bronze sculpture — a bit taller than the diminutive businessman really was — shows Moyer placing a life preserver over a young girl as she leaps into a pool.
Behind him, the ghostly image of a young boy is smiling.
Michael Wilson, 56, the Mapleton, Utah, sculptor who was commissioned late last year to craft the monument, said he was inspired by Moyer’s example and the pool which bears his name.
Photo by Katherine Lopez
Per a story published by The Daily Sentinel in 1922, Moyer’s donation of Lincoln Park Pool to the city was rooted in the river drowning death of a child of one of his employees at the former Fair Store.
Decades later, the boy who passed away will be smiling in the background of Moyer’s sculpture.
“It’s nice when you can tell a story, and you don’t just have some figure standing there,” Wilson said. “This work is just as much about the kids as it is Moyer. That’s just the kind of person he was, more interested in providing for the community than himself.”
Moyer, who died in 1943, will be honored Friday with the unveiling of his sculpture, which will stand on the east side of the Alpine Bank building, facing Fifth Street.
Friday’s unveiling is scheduled at 5:30 p.m., followed by a reception until 7 p.m.
Moyer’s sculpture is the latest in the local Legends Sculpture Project. Costs for Moyer’s addition downtown are projected around $47,000 and are paid for by annual donations and pledges from individuals and businesses, according to Jacquie Chappell-Reid of the Legends committee.
Moyer also founded the former YMCA in downtown Grand Junction where the downtown Alpine Bank facility sits today.
“We were able to track down the cornerstone of the YMCA, which will be incorporated into the base of the sculpture,” Chappell-Reid said.
She said Wilson was chosen for the project last winter from a group of 12 who submitted bids for the job. Wilson, whose work also includes Dalton Trumbo’s likeness at Seventh and Main, has been selected to sculpt another Legend: Colorado National Monument founder John Otto.
Otto’s sculpture is slated for completion in 2011.
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