The Eisenhower Monument at the
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
is a monument to former
General of the Army
Army general or General of the army is the highest ranked general officer in many countries that use the French Revolutionary System. Army general is normally the highest rank used in peacetime.
In countries that adopt the general officer fou ...
and the 34th president of the United States,
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
.
The subject
As a member of the famed West Point Class of 1915, (known as
"The Class the Stars Fell On"), Eisenhower rose to prominence as an Army officer during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, where he was the
Supreme Allied Commander Europe
The Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) is the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) and head of ACO's headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The commander is ...
. After the war, he served as the Army's
Chief of Staff
The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...
before being elected President in 1952.
Description and commissioning
The statue stands nine feet tall and is perched upon a pedestal of red granite.
The bid for the monument originally included noted sculptors
Donald De Lue,
Felix De Weldon
Felix Weihs de Weldon (April 12, 1907 – June 3, 2003) was an Austrian sculptor. His most famous pieces include the United States Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial, 1954) in the Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, US, and the Natio ...
and
Walker Hancock, but the commission went to class of 1953 West Point graduate Robert L. Dean Jr.
[ ] After receiving the commission, Dean was offered one of the General's actual uniforms as a model by Eisenhower's son.
Dean molded the wax model at his home in Pennsylvania and cast the bronze statue in Italy before the monument was unveiled on 3 May 1983.
See also
*
List of sculptures of presidents of the United States
References
External links
Robert L. Dean's website
{{coord, 41.3915, -73.9563, region:US_type:edu, display=title
1983 sculptures
Bronze sculptures in New York (state)
Monuments and memorials at West Point
Outdoor sculptures in New York (state)
Statues in New York (state)
Statues of Dwight D. Eisenhower
Statues of military officers
1983 establishments in New York (state)