Lucy Gellman Photos.
To the gentle hum and beep of a crane, a heavy ring of Atlantic white cedar wood made its way into the air, gleaming against a smear of blue sky. On the ground below, gravel blanketed a circle of earth, surrounded by contiguous, delta-shaped stones. As it touched down, ropes steadying it from both sides, Bud Argel knelt down to help move it into place. His palms, open and upturned, touched the curved base of the work. For a moment, it looked as if he was praying.
Thursday morning, a memorial sculpture dedicated to educators Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, Anne Marie Murphy, Mary J. Sherlach, and Victoria Leigh Soto—all Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) alumni who were killed during the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School—returned to SCSU’s campus, after nearly a year of careful restoration with a team at Dutch Wharf Boatyard & Marina in Branford. It is a larger part of the SCSU Sandy Hook Alumnae Remembrance Garden, which was first inaugurated in 2018.
The sculpture has been achingly absent from campus since last June, when the university’s facilities team removed it after spotting water damage on its west side. Normally, it sits just beyond Jennings and Morrill Halls on the university’s main campus, overlooking a small hill and placid lake below. On a clear day, a person can see the skyline of downtown New Haven in the distance, including through a wide, perfect circle at the center of the sculpture.
“I’m really happy that it’s back here,” said Eric Lessne, associate vice president for capital budgeting and facilities operations at SCSU, as he supervised the reinstallation. “It belongs here. It’s just important—it’s the soul of the university.”
Discover more from InnerCity News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
