HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — What is now an iconic symbol of Marshall University, created to memorialize the 75 Herd football players, coaches and supporters killed in the 1970 Marshall plane crash, was controversial when it was first proposed in Huntington.
The designer of the Marshall Memorial Fountain which has stood for decades outside the Marshall Memorial Student Center was Harry Bertoia, a sculpture and print artist who also designed furniture and jewelry.
Bertoia was chosen with a close 5-4 vote from members of a committee acting Marshall President Donald Dedmon created after the crash to decide on a campus memorial for the victims.
“Some of the high-ranking officials in the athletic department at Marshall were very much opposed to an abstract design,” said Chris Hatten, senior curator for the Huntington Museum of Art.
At the time, there were discussions about possible inclusions of football players or a bison in the memorial piece.
“Once the sculpture went up and it was unveiled, I think people embraced the sculpture,” Hatten said.
“Rising, Renewing, Reaching,” an exhibition of Bertoia’s artwork — in all forms — opened this weekend at the Huntington Museum of Art with fountain pictures in another gallery from David Pittenger, a Marshall faculty member.
The exhibition was part of a series of events to commemorate this year’s 50th anniversary of the plane crash that happened on the approach to Tri-State Airport on a return trip home for the Herd from a game at East Carolina on Nov. 14, 1970.
On Nov. 13 of this year, Celia Bertoia, Harry Bertoia’s daughter, was scheduled to speak at the Huntington Museum of Art.
Every year on Nov. 14, a memorial ceremony is held with the shutting off of the Memorial Fountain for the winter at Marshall and water flow is restored during a separate ceremony in the spring.
Standing at a height of 13 feet, the sculpture weighs 6,500 pounds.
The fountain sculpture includes a plaque with this inscription:
“They shall live on in the hearts of their families and friends forever and this memorial records their loss to the University and to the community.
“I think if you walked down the streets anywhere in West Virginia and ask people if they liked abstract art, maybe a lot of them would say they don’t. But this is one instance where people like this design,” Hatten said.
“This is pretty timeless, I think, to have an abstract design like this and I’d make the case that this is the most appreciated work of public art in West Virginia.”
Harry Bertoia was suggested for the memorial project to Keith Dean, the architect for the Memorial Student Center.
Construction of the student center had started before the crash in 1969. The original design included space in the front of the building for a fountain.
The Memorial Fountain, which Bertoia created in his Pennsylvania studio, was dedicated on Nov. 12, 1972.
In all, Bertoia, who died in 1978, produced upwards of 50 public works during his career along with many more smaller sculptures.
He may be best known, though, for his Diamond chairs — now largely called Bertoia chairs — made of polished and welded steel wires.
Some of his later sculptures made sounds.
The Bertoia exhibit at the Huntington Museum of Art, with some of those sound recordings as well as prints, sculptures and jewelry with a focus on his Memorial Fountain work, was scheduled to run through Jan. 3
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, a ticket was required for entry to the Huntington Museum of Art.
The free tickets were available on the Huntington Museum of Art’s website.
Masks and social distancing were also mandated.