Michigan WWII Legacy Memorial Sculptor Visits Plymouth Library

While the Michigan WWII Legacy Memorial is busy raising the $4 million needed to construct the year-round multi-purpose memorial in Royal Oak, Detroit native and sculptor Larry Halbert has been busy creating maquettes, or rough models, for the memorial.

The nine maquettes feature the faces of Michigan residents who served in WWII. They are separated into three groups: land, sea and air, according to Halbert.

Halbert said he has been taking the maquettes with him and visiting different events all over Southeastern Michigan to talk about the memorial and his role in it. Halbert will have the air group with him when he visits the Plymouth District Library on Wednesday.

"Those figures are maybe 20-24 inches in height, they're one-third of the size proportionally to the (larger) figures," Halbert said. "And what we do that for is to study the gestures and postures. Also it gives the board a way to feel and see what it really looks like instead of looking at a flat drawing."

Halbert, who has also worked on sculptural projects at Rouge Park and Campus Martius in Detroit, said he has been working on the WWII memorial since late 2011.

"It boiled down to something that everyone was happy with, the board, the architect and my ideas were all put together to tell a story about the Michigan connection to WWII and connecting the home front and the battle front," he said. "What we're really striving for is to come up with a unique type of memorial. One of the things we're shooting for is not like a dry-stone, staid memorial, but something with some life in it."

Halbert will discuss the process he uses to create the life-sized sculptures that will be part of the memorial on Wednesday.

Susan Stoney, Community Relations Specialist at the library, said that over the last five years, the library has held a winter series on WWI, WW II, Vietnam, the Gulf War and the War on Terror.

The library also held a Civil War program last month and will hold another, Confederate Memories, on July 16. 

"We have consistently had a nice audience for any program honoring the efforts of veterans," Stoney said. "We also have enjoyed hosting programs for the visual or performing arts - so this seemed like a great combination of the two."

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is requested. Call the library at 734-453-0750, ext 4 or visit online at plymouthlibrary.org.

For more information on the WWII Legacy Memorial, visit www.michiganww2memorial.org.