The desire to erect a life-size statue of John Marshall on campus became a reality with the construction of the John Deaver Drinko Library.\u00a0 Plans called for the development of a plaza or commons area adjacent to the library and funds for the project came from a grant provided by Ashland Oil, Inc.<\/p>\n
The Drinko Academy, among other entities, argued that the construction offered a clear opportunity to erect a statue which would enhance the profile of our namesake on campus.<\/p>\n
Then President J. Wade Gilley responded positively to the idea and created a Public Art Committee for the Drinko Library.\u00a0 One charge given the committee was to select a sculptor for a life-size statue of the Chief Justice to be located in the newly named \u201cAshland Commons\u201d adjacent to the new Drinko Library.\u00a0 The artist selected was the noted American sculptor William Behrends of Tryon, North Carolina.<\/p>\n
It was decided that the statue would be unveiled in tandem with the dedication of the Drinko Library and the Drinko Academy was given the major responsibility of coordinating both events.\u00a0 The date selected for the unveiling of the statue was October 23, 1998, with the dedication of the Drinko Library set for the following day.<\/p>\n
In planning the dedication program, I employed Dr. Charles H. Moffat\u2019s\u00a0History of Marshall<\/em>\u00a0to gain an historical perspective on the dedication of the original bust of John Marshall located at the west front of Old Main.\u00a0 There, I learned that as part of the 1937 centennial celebration a granite bust of John Marshall, designed and executed by Robert Fleisch as a New Deal Federal Arts Project, was unveiled by eleven-year-old Charles Marshall Scott of Huntington, W. Va., the great, great grandson of John Marshall.<\/p>\n I wondered if Mr. Scott might still be living and, if so, might he be willing to participate in our unveiling.\u00a0 Following an intense search, I found that Mr. Scott was living in Bowie, Maryland.\u00a0 I contacted him and, during the conversation, he told me that his daughter, Mary Ann Scott, then seven years of age, unveiled a second bust of John Marshall.\u00a0 Sadly, sometime during Easter vacation in 1957, the original granite bust had been defaced by vandals. Thus, in 1959 Ms. Scott unveiled the bronze bust designed and executed by our own Professor Joseph Jablonski, which stands today in place of the earlier Fleisch monument.<\/p>\n Mr. Scott went on to relate that he had an eleven-year-old grandson and when I asked if he might participate in the unveiling, Mr. Scott responded in the affirmative.\u00a0 As a result, Andrew Marshall Schiff, son of Mary Ann (Scott) Schiff and grandson of Charles Marshall Scott unveiled the statue during the ceremony held on the Ashland Plaza, at 2:00 p.m., October 23, 1998.\u00a0 Charles Scott and his wife and Mary Ann Schiff and her husband were in attendance for the unveiling of the statue by the great, great, great, great grandson of John Marshall!<\/p>\n Another interesting aspect of the unveiling ceremony was the participation in the event by leading dignitaries of the Cherokee Nation.\u00a0 Again, in Moffat\u2019s History of Marshall<\/em>, he relates that when news of the vandalizing of the Fleisch bust was reported nation-wide by the Associated Press, then Marshall President Stewart H. Smith received a letter of sympathy from Alaquah, Chief of the Cherokee Nation.\u00a0 The reason for the Chief\u2019s remorse stemmed from John Marshall\u2019s strong defense of Cherokee rights and possessions during the Andrew Jackson Administration.<\/p>\n Subsequently, I contacted Mr. Joe Byrd, then Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation located at Tahlequah, Oklahoma and explained to him the planned unveiling and the letter from Chief Alaquah written in 1957.\u00a0 Chief Byrd said that the Cherokee Nation knew and loved John Marshall and would be honored and proud to participate in the ceremony.\u00a0 True to his word, Chief Joe Byrd along with other Cherokee dignitaries flew from Oklahoma in their Lear Jet and participated in the program.\u00a0 Chief Byrd not only extolled the virtues of John Marshall but also presented the university with the impressive Great Seal of the Cherokee Nation.\u00a0 As the chief explained, the presentation of the seal was made only on very special occasions and bestowed upon only select individuals and institutions.\u00a0 The Great Seal now proudly adorns a wall in the office of the Drinko Academy.<\/p>\n Dr. Alan B. Gould The desire to erect a life-size statue of John Marshall on campus became a reality with the construction of the John Deaver Drinko Library.\u00a0 Plans called for the development of a plaza or commons area adjacent to the library and funds for the project came from a grant provided by Ashland Oil, Inc. The Drinko<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":703,"featured_media":0,"parent":251,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1177","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/drinko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/drinko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/drinko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/drinko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/703"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/drinko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/drinko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1178,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/drinko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1177\/revisions\/1178"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/drinko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/drinko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFormer Executive Director
\nJohn Deaver Drinko Academy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"