'Statue of Responsibility' taking shape at UVU


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OREM — The dream of a well-known author and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl is taking shape on the Utah Valley University campus.

Frankl envisioned the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast of the United States, and a yet-to-be built Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast. Now, a much smaller version of that statue stands on the UVU campus.

Thirty feet above where most of students walk every day, artist Gary Price has spent the past 10 months working on the Statue of Responsibility in the Losee Building.

"It's been really, really fun to sculpt up here on campus, in front of 40,000 students," Price said.

Who is Victor Frankl?

Viktor E. Frankl, M.D., Ph.D., was a celebrated neurologist and psychiatrist, and author of 32 books. Some 40 years ago in his national best selling book "Man's Search for Meaning", Dr. Frankl advanced the idea that to have freedom endure, liberty must be joined with responsibility. To that end, he proposed that the "Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.

Dr. Frankl was an inspirational speaker and believer that man can control his thoughts and attitudes and find happiness and joy in even the most awful of human circumstances. He practiced what he preached while a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau.

Dr. Frankl died in 1997. He is survived by his second wife Eleonore and their daughter Gabriele.

Source: Statue of Responsibility Foundation

"With freedom comes a sense of stewardship and responsibility," said Matthew Holland, president of UVU. "When I saw this particular sculpture I thought it did a real nice job capturing the idea of people helping people."

The statue is in its final stage of work, but there's a much bigger project ahead. Plans are now in the works to build a 300-foot version of this statue on the West Coast, but an official site has yet to be announced.

Thursday morning, the mold from the piece at UVU was dismantled and taken to a foundry where a duplicate will be made for the larger statue, which will "stand in concert with the station of liberty and all that means for freedom and independence," Holland said.

More information on the West Coast Statue of Responsibility project can be found at www.mystatueofresponsibility.com.

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