News Briefs | Sept. 4, 2009
Posted September 4, 2009 at 1:01 am
Updated September 4, 2009 at 2:52 am
Campus
Sculptor of ‘Thinker on a Rock’ passes away
Barry Flanagan, sculptor of the “Thinker on a Rock” placed outside of Mallinckrodt Center, died Monday due to a neurological disease. He was 68 years old.
“Thinker on a Rock,” better known as “The Bunny” on campus, is on loan to Washington University. The statue uses Rodin’s “Thinker” (1880) as a model instead of the hare that Flanagan normally used in his pieces.
Another “Thinker on a Rock” statue is displayed in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Flanagan frequently sculpted animals in bronze—including rabbits, horses and elephants. (Lauren Olens)
Local
Fossett Foundation gives money to local school
The Fossett Foundation, named after James Stephen Fossett and his wife Peggy, donated $75,000 to the Little Flower School, a Catholic school in suburban St. Louis. This donation was the first provided by the foundation.
Fossett, an alumnus of the Olin School of Business at Washington University, was piloting a plane when it disappeared on Sept. 3, 2007. A year later, on Sept. 29, 2008, his identification cards were recovered in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California and investigators confirmed his death on Nov. 3, 2008. He was 63 years old.
Fossett, known as the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon, was a longtime member of the University’s board of trustees. (Sally Wang)
National
Work on California fire containment continues
Firefighters are close to containing 50 percent of the Station Fire that started on Aug. 26 in California. The massive fire has caused considerable damage to the state, forcing thousands of Southern California residents to relocate and costing the state roughly $21 million.
Up till Wednesday, the fire has burned 140,150 acres of land and, in the process, destroyed 62 homes, three commercial properties and 27 additional buildings. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, declared a state of emergency last week. (Sally Wang)
International
57 dead in Indonesia after quake
Fifty-seven people are now confirmed dead after Wednesday’s undersea earthquake, which destroyed or heavily damaged 11,000 homes across 12 districts and set off a number of deadly landslides in Indonesia’s West Java.
Most of the victims were children.
The last earthquake in Java occurred in July 2006 and killed 668 people. (Eliza Adelson)
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