U-M sculptor left mark from local schools to America's capitol

U-M sculptor left mark from local schools to America's capitol

By TOM ROGERS

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

JAN 4 1987

Services for Avard Tennyson Fairbanks, former University of Michigan sculptor in residence and associate professor of sculpture, were held Saturday in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Fairbanks, 89, died Jan. 1 at Salt Lake City of complications from a heart attack three weeks earlier.

Bishop Jay M. Haymond of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints conducted the service at the Bonneville LDS Stake Center. Entombment was at the Larkin-Sunset Lawn Mausoleum.

Widely known for his sculptures commemorating pioneer history, events in the life of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and other works, Fairbanks also expressed a touch of whimsy in his sculpture.

In Ann Arbor, Fairbanks’ ice sculptures on the front lawn of his home on Lincoln Avenue were as much a part of winter as snow and low temperatures.

A plaque designed by Fairbanks to commemorate the American pioneers hangs at the entrance to Pioneer High School.

Fairbanks came to the University of Michigan in 1931 after studying at Yale and the University of Washington. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees at U-M.

He left after 18 years to establish the University of Utah College of Fine Arts at Salt Lake City. He remained dean of the college until his retirement in 1955.

Fairbanks was born at Provo, Utah, on March 2, 1897. He was married to Beatrice Maude Fox on June 25, 1918, in Honolulu. He was working on decoration for the Hawaii LDS Temple at the time. The marriage later was solemnized in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. His widow survives.

In 1984 Fairbanks unveiled his most recent major sculpture, a bust of Abraham Lincoln for the U.S. Capitol. It was the fourth Fairbanks sculpture for the Capitol. In the early 1980s Fairbanks unveiled a memorial to former Michigan governor and U.S. Senator Nathan Woodbridge Ferris at Ferris State College, Big Rapids, Mich. At the time of his death, Fairbanks was a consultant for restoration of a statue atop the City-County Building at Salt Lake City.

Among his sculptures are: the Angel Moroni atop the Washington LDS Temple; the medal of courage that Canadian Prime Minister William L. Mackenzie King presented to British Prime Minster Winston Churchill and the Sons of the Utah Pioneers presented to President Dwight D. Eisenhower; the monument at Sparta, Greece, to Lycurgus the Lawgiver; a work memorializing the Tragedy in Winter Quarters at the Florence, Neb., cemetery; Lincoln, the Frontiersman, near Honolulu; and the memorial at Fort Lewis, Wash., to the 91st Div. of World War I soldiers.

Also among his works: the Pioneer Mother Memorial at Vancouver, Wash; the Nebula for the 1933 New York World’s Fair; the statue of Abraham Lincoln at New Salem, Ill., where the 16th president lived as a young man; and the statue of Lincoln on Chicago’s North Shore. In competition with the work of other top-ranked sculptors, Fairbanks’ sculpture Rain was chosen for placement at South Carolina’s Brookgreen Gardens.

In his native Utah, Fairbanks’ sculptures are widespread: the Angel Moroni atop the Jordan River Temple; the Peace Gardens’ statue of Peace; the University of Utah’s monument to Florence Nightingale; the Relief Society Centennial Memorial; and a number of works at the LDS Temple.

As a teen-ager, Fairbanks won scholarships to study at New York City’s Art Students League and had his work shown at the National Academy of Design. In 1913 he studied in Paris and exhibited at the Grand Salon.

In 1920 he was named professor of sculpture at the University of Oregon. He taught there until 1927, when he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study in Florence, Italy.

In addition to his wife, Fairbanks is survived by eight sons: Avard F., a retired aerospace engineer, and Dr. Grant R., a plastic surgeon, both of Salt Lake City; Dr. Eugene, a family physician, Bellingham, Wash.; Elliott A., an engineer with Sperry Univac, Bountiful, Utah; Justin F., professor of art and sculpture at Eastern Arizona College, Thatcher, Ariz.; Dr. Virgil F., hematologist with the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.; Jonathan L., curator of early Americana at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass.; Dr. David N.F. of Bethesda, Md., chairman of the department of otolaryngology, George Washington University at Washington, D.C.; two daughters: Georgia Fairbanks, high school vocal music teacher, Salt Lake City; and Mrs. Maria Hansen, homemaker, Simi Valley, Calif.; 54 grandchildren; and 44 great-grandchildren.