Downtown Muskegon - Recent News - Hackley Sculpture unveiled in downtown Muskegon

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Hackley Sculpture unveiled in downtown Muskegon

October 8, 2009
Marla Miller
Muskegon Chronicle

MUSKEGON — After some conversing and rearranging, downtown officials and the artist who sculpted Charles H. Hackley sitting on a bench settled on a prime spot in front of the Baker College Culinary Institute of Michigan.

It took the group a couple of hours Thursday morning to unload the life-size bronze monument and try out different locations on the plaza, then secure him so he has a straight-on view of Hackley Park. The official unveiling took place during a rainy ceremony at 4 p.m. Thursday near the corner of Third Street and Clay Avenue downtown.

The interactive sculpture was made possible through a private donation from retired Bennett Pump Co. and SPX Corp. executive Peter Turner, who brought it to the attention of city leaders that there was no public statue of the city’s most prominent founding father. Residents Susan Clink and Toni Reynolds made donations for the bench and plaque.

“Bill (Duffy, the artist) did a marvelous job,” Turner said, after seeing the sculpture for the first time. “We’re only 104 years late.”

E. Jane Connell, senior curator of Muskegon Museum of Art, which was formerly Hackley Art Gallery, stood off near the curb eyeing people’s reactions. She said Charles Hackley looked a little stoic, but that is how she has seen other representations of him.

“From all I have learned about him, it probably suits him,” she said. “I think he will be a centerpiece for civic pride.”

Early in the day, a group consisting of artist Bill Duffy and Richard Rist, owner of the Baltimore-based The Large Art Co., urban planner Harry Wierenga, John McGarry, executive director of Lakeshore Museum Center, and others gathered to discuss the best positioning of the monument.

Both Wierenga and McGarry walked across the street to eye the view from Hackley Park.

The bronze sculpture was the color of a copper penny out of the factory, Duffy said, so he used a process known as patina, which is a chemical oxidation process to turn it various colors and pick up more detail in his suit.

“It’s awesome, how the buttons look so real” said 8-year-old Anna Sytsema. “It looks like you can take the coat right off of him and put it on.”

The sculpture attracted attention from passersby during the installation process. A school group walked by and one girl shouted out to her classmates: “That’s Charles Hackley; he built a school, and a library and a park.”

Mary Jane Duguay, 79, a lifelong Muskegon resident who worked at the Red Cross when it was in Hackley’s former mansion, made a special trip downtown to see the sculpture in the morning. Her first response was “it’s breathtaking, beautiful.”

“I am enthralled,” she said, as she stood looking at it. “That’s just going to be fabulous to have him sit there.”

The sculpture was a project of Downtown Muskegon Development Corp.’s Public Art Committee. Members decided to go with an older Hackley during the height of his philanthropy and wanted him on a bench so people could sit beside him and have pictures taken.