The efforts to raise the funds required to commission the sculpture are being led by a group of community volunteers chaired by Willis “Bing” Davis and Judge Walter Rice. Committee members include Tim Kambitsch, Brady Kress, J. Thomas Maultsby, Dayton Mayor Jeffrey J. Mimms, Jr., Michael R. Roediger, and Jenell R. Ross. The Committee announced the public efforts to raise funds for this project at the Feb. 23 City of Dayton Commissioner’s Meeting.
Partnering with The Dayton Foundation, the Paul Laurence Dunbar Statue Fund has been established. The community can support by visiting The Dayton Foundation’s website at www.daytonfoundation.org/ccgift.html indicating the Paul Laurence Dunbar Statue Fund #8590. Checks may also be made out to The Dayton Foundation and sent to 1401 S. Main St. #100, Dayton, OH 45409. Please also reference Fund #8590.
Kentucky-based artist Ed Hamilton has been commissioned to create the sculpture. Born in Cincinnati and residing in Louisville, Hamilton is a 1969 graduate of the Louisville School of Art. In 2005, he was one of eight jurors for the International Andrew Young Memorial in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. His sculpted works include “Spirit of Freedom,” a National Memorial in Washington, D.C., which achieved worldwide acclaim. The statue, dedicated in July 1998, is a tribute to the Colored Soldiers and Sailors of the Civil War.
Hamilton was also selected to create a Christmas Tree Ornament for First Lady Laura Bush’s Christmas Tree at the White House in 2008. He is an author as well, publishing “The Birth of an Artist, a Journey of Discovery” in 2006.
Dunbar was born in Dayton on June 27, 1872. He died in Dayton on Feb. 9, 1906, at the age of 33.
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