NORMAN – A sculpture of University of Oklahoma President David L. Boren was unveiled and dedicated on the Norman campus today, coinciding with his 77th birthday.
The privately-funded sculpture was commissioned by a group of OU supporters who wished to honor Boren’s service. It was completed in bronze in 2012 and remained in storage until the time of his retirement, upon Boren’s insistence.
Paul Moore, OU artist-in-residence and professor of figurative sculpture, created the figure. Moore also sculpted other prominent works across the campus, including the sculpture of President George Lynn Cross on the North Oval and the Seed Sower on the South Oval. Boren is the fourth president to be depicted in major sculptures on the campus, joining Cross, founding president David Ross Boyd and President William Bennett Bizzell. All 13 presidents of OU to date are also depicted in small sculptures placed in the exterior niches of Evans Hall.
The sculpture of Boren was installed in the garden just to the north of Monnet Hall, where he attended the OU College of Law in the 1960s. Standing 10 feet tall, it depicts Boren dressed in formal academic regalia holding a copy of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty. The base of the sculpture features a relief, also sculpted by Moore, of First Lady Molly Shi Boren in tribute to her service to the university.
