Sculpture is art professor Richard Pumphrey's great love, but he was angry every day he worked on his most recent piece for the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford - a bust of Josef Stalin.
"He was just a terrible person," Pumphrey told The News & Advance. "So the challenge is to embody the terror he instilled."
The bust of Stalin is the fourth of six portrait sculptures Pumphrey was commissioned to sculpt of World War II leaders for the D-Day Memorial. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President Harry S Truman, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill were his first three subjects. Still to be completed are busts of Churchill's successor, Clement Attlee, and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek.
"Without the vision and leadership of the Allied leaders, there can be little doubt that western civilization as it was known up to that time would have perished," Pumphrey said. "I am very proud to have been asked to give visual form to those visionary leaders."
Pumphrey's portraits help visitors understand the lessons and legacy of D-Day. In keeping with the memorial's sculpture program, all his pieces are 20 percent larger than life size.
The D-Day Memorial is the result of the vision and leadership of a few who saw the need to commemorate the valor, fidelity, and sacrifice of those who landed at Normandy, signaling the beginning of the end of WWII," Pumphrey said.
The memorial, which opened in 2001, has been making headlines because of its financial straits. The memorial's leadership is urging lawmakers to declare it a national monument to avoid the prospect of closing.
The nonprofit has a $2.2 million annual budget and receives about $600,000 from tours and ticket sales. The rest is generated through donations, which have suffered in the past few years.
Pumphrey, who calls the memorial "a spiritual place," has written Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and President Barack Obama urging federal intervention.
Pumphrey has been an art professor at Lynchburg College for 25 years. He received his B.A. in art from LC in 1974. In 1977, he earned his master of fine arts degree in sculpture from the University of Georgia. Elements of Art, authored by Pumphrey, is a design text for college students that reflects his insights into the universal principles of two- and three-dimensional design.
Pumphrey's sculpture varies in form and meaning. An impassioned designer and author on the subject, he creates many types of sculpture, including portrait busts, woodcarvings, and religious pieces.