Gifts for 'the Gift'

By CHUCK SMITH csmith@gbtribune.com

No public funds sought for 'The Gift'

Barton County Commission members were not asked for public funding for a $400,000 monument that is planned for the west side of the courthouse.

In fact, they were told Monday that public funds will not be used for the project that will honor 2000 Nobel Laureate in Physics Jack Kilby and the community that he called home.

Commissioners were told about the project by the committee chairman, local attorney Glen Opie, and by local artist Chet Cale. Cale has designed and will complete the larger-than-life bronze “The Gift,” which will be the center of the commemorative plaza.

Opie told commissioners that the local committee has worked for three years on the project and it has brought professionals in to help.

According to information from the committee, “The committee has contracted with PBA Architects, Wichita, for architectural plans of the monument. Local sculptor Chet Cale has been tapped to create the statue and Gary Gordon LLC, New York City, has been contracted to provide architectural lighting.

“The Gift consists of three bronze figures rendered at a scale of one-and-a-quarter times life size. The likeness of Kilby will be approximately eight feet tall and will stand on a cylindrical stone column. He reaches out his hand, giving his microchip to a young boy. To Kilby’s right, a younger girl eager reaches out a hand to her older companion and with her other hand, she points toward the stars. Symbolically, the sculpture represents transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next and how that transmission has been affected by the microchip.”

On Monday, the committee received permission to set up a poster and brochure display in the courthouse, and they explained the scale that the tribute will present on the west side of the courthouse.

“It’s more than just a tribute to a man. It’s a tribute to this community,” Opie said.

Kilby is a good choice for the plaza because of his contribution to the development of the modern computer, certainly, but even more than that, he was a great example of the sort of success that can still come from a rural community. “He was an uncommon, common man,” Cale said.

Contacts are being made for major contributions to the construction, but personal donations are also being sought, Opie noted. He explained the donations are tax deductible and “everybody who contributes will be acknowledged at the site.”

Anyone wanting to contribute to the project can send checks to Great Bend Foundation, PO Drawer E, Great Bend.