Richard Lugar statue to be unveiled next week in public ceremony

The Lugar monument will be composed of the 7-foot stature, its base and five free-standing plaques. (Image courtesy of Robert Vane)

One of the top political figures in city and state history will be memorialized with a statue on his namesake plaza in Indianapolis next week. 

The Richard Lugar Monument will be unveiled at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Bicentennial Unity Plaza outside Gainbridge Fieldhouse in a public event honoring the former U.S. senator and Indianapolis mayor. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the event, which will be attended by former staffers, constituents and public officials.

The statue will later be moved to a permanent location amid a grove of sycamore trees on the southwest quadrant of Lugar Plaza, along the Cultural Trail on the south side of the City-County Building. The 800-pound sculpture itself stands 7 feet tall and will sit on a 2-and-half-foot-tall base that weighs 1,000 pounds. It depicts a “relaxed” Lugar during his third U.S. Senate term, with him leaning on a column representing the U.S. Capitol.

Five plaques will surround the statue, with each inscribed with accomplishments Lugar made before his death in 2019 at age 87, including Rhodes Scholar, naval officer, school board member, mayor, U.S. senator and world leader.

Tuesday’s unveiling represents about three years of planning spurred by late civic and business leader Jim Morris and supported by a group largely consisting of Lugar’s former staffers. 

Longtime local architect Jonathan Hess, chairman of Browning Day, was artist for the memorial. The stature was sculpted by Ryan Feeney, an Indianapolis firefighter and metal forge owner who was also responsible for the statue of Peyton Manning outside Lucas Oil Stadium and the peace dove sculpture outside downtown’s Indianapolis Public Library.

The memorial is being supported entirely through privately raised funds. Maintenance funds are in place for at least the next 50 years.

“The monument itself that we all came to embrace was to capture his entire career and to serve as an example, a learning example over the next 50 years for the future, what should public service be,” said Charlie Richardson, a former staffer who had been friends with Lugar for 52 years.

Lugar is commonly remembered for his 36 years (1977-2013) representing Indiana in the U.S. Senate, earning the honor as the state’s longest-serving member of Congress. 

He was one of the Republican Party’s most influential voices, especially on foreign policy and nuclear nonproliferation. One of his marquee accomplishments was the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which lowered the temperature and reduced weapons buildup during the Cold War. 

He also fielded legislation addressing the global HIV and AIDS epidemic, supporting Nelson Mandela during the South African apartheid and implementing a number of programs through the Farm Bill. He also worked across the aisle on a number of issues, including climate change, gun control and immigration.

Lugar was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former President Barack Obama in 2013.

“In Dick, I saw someone who wasn’t a Republican or a Democrat first, but a problem-solver—an example of the impact of a public servant can make by eschewing partisan divisiveness to instead focus on common ground,” Obama said in a statement after Lugar died.

At 35, Lugar was elected to the first of his two terms as Indianapolis’ mayor (1968-1975). Lugar pushed for a consolidated city-county government structure, called “Unigov,” effectively establishing the government structure residents have today. He also was instrumental in placing Market Square Arena, the former home of the Indiana Pacers, downtown instead of in the suburbs. 

During Lugar’s first longshot mayoral campaign in 1967, he met Richardson, who still has the red and blue campaign button sitting on his desk.

Richardson said he wants to see this memorial used as a learning place for the breadth of public good Lugar implemented during his career. 

He wants it to serve as an educational marker, showing people what good and motivated politics looks like. 

“In this divisive, controversial, partisan (society), we have an example in Dick Lugar’s career—not just his words but his actions,” Richardson said. “You will be able to see in action what a person of honesty, goodwill, intelligence, clarity, the positive impact that a person can have across the political aisle for the common good.”