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Hero’s statue may get a home

A model of the Michael Anderson statue planned for the future science center. (Craig Sweat/Courtesy of Michael P. Anderson Memorial Statue Fund / The Spokesman-Review)
By Alison Boggs alisonb@spokesman.com(509) 459-5314
A model of the Michael Anderson statue planned for the future science center. (Craig Sweat/Courtesy of Michael P. Anderson Memorial Statue Fund / The Spokesman-Review)

Visitors to the Spokane Opera House may be greeted by a larger-than-life statue of local hero and astronaut Lt. Col. Michael Anderson this summer if the Spokane Public Facilities District approves.

A statue of Anderson, one of the astronauts who died in the Columbia space shuttle tragedy, may find a temporary home in the breezeway of the Opera House while awaiting permanent placement outside a planned science center in Riverfront Park.

The PFD, which owns and operates the Opera House, heard a request Tuesday to locate the statue there temporarily. The board likely will take action on the matter within the next few weeks. If approved, the statue would be installed, then moved when the science center is built, said Kevin Twohig, the PFD’s executive director.

The statue needs a temporary home because it will be finished well before the science center. Work on the science center likely would not begin until 2007 or 2008 and hinges on a large fund-raising campaign. The center will be called Mobius at Michael P. Anderson Plaza.

The group raising money for the statue thought of installing it temporarily in the Opera House breezeway because of its accessibility to the public, said Jesse Wuerst, a member of the group.

“Our commitment has always been to temporarily place it in as public a location as possible and as accessible as possible,” Wuerst said.

The statue by local artist Dorothy Fowler was commissioned by the Michael P. Anderson Memorial Statue Fund. It should be done by June. The sculpture features Anderson kneeling with his helmet in one hand and a dove in the other.

“Michael’s our local hero, and the whole premise of the statue was to be an inspiration to children and a reminder to everyone to keep the dream alive, because dreams really do come true,” Wuerst said. Almost $90,000 of the $125,000 needed for the statue has been raised, she said.

Anderson graduated from Cheney High School in 1977 and went on to live his dream by becoming an astronaut. He died at age 43 in the Columbia space shuttle accident of Feb. 1, 2003.

Bouten Construction, one of two companies acting as general contractor for the Convention Center expansion project, offered to donate its services to mount the statue in a concrete base.