The Mountaineer Statue
The new Mountaineer Sculpture, a 9' bronze Mountaineer sculpted by Joshua Tobey ('00), stands proudly in the new campus entrance, the newly completed Taylor Welcome Center.
Joshua Tobey ('00), middle, with Donna ('62) and Dick ('54) Bratton
Joshua Tobey (’00), commissioned by the Oates Family to sculpt a Bull & Bear for the entrance of the Borick Business Building, was contracted by Western State College Foundation to create a 9’ bronze Mountaineer to stand proudly in the new campus entrance, and welcome all to Western’s campus and the newly completed Taylor Welcome Center.
On Saturday, December 10th, 2011, the Mountaineer was dedicated to L. Richard “Dick” Bratton (’54) during the last celebration of Heritage to Horizon, the 100 year anniversary of Western opening the doors to higher education on Colorado’s Western Slope in 1911.
A three-sport athlete in football, basketball and wrestling for the Mountaineers in the 1950s, Dick was the Founder of the Western State College Foundation and a former member of the Western State College Foundation Board of Directors. Dick was also one of the leaders in the effort to raze the Ruland Middle School building. Dick served on the Board of Trustees for the State Colleges of Colorado from 1963-75, which at the time included Western State College.
Dick’s daughters, Susan Bratton and Sara Bratton Bradbury, and husband Tom, pledged 50% of the cost to match gifts from alumni and friends who wished to honor Dick and provide a monument to Western’s strength. WSC Foundation Board member Bob (’77) McGraw, and his wife, Marjorie, made a lead gift of $27,000 to the challenge, and WSC Board of Trustee member Todd (’90) Wheeler and his wife, Laura (’91) donated $11,000.00 to this meaningful fund. The family of Paul M. Rady (’76), a former member of the Western State College Board of Trustees and Past-President of the WSC Foundation board of Directors, also made a generous gift of $5,000.
Other donors who generously made this meaningful tribute possible include:
Joshua Tobey
Luftseben
Malte and Pam vonMatthiessen
Joe Blake
Gerald and Elizabeth Caplan
Sandra Mark
The Oates Family
Nancy Tredway
Jim and Pam Christian
Russell and Neal George
Galen and Nancy Houston
Robert R. Little
John and Heidi McClow
John and Leslie Randall
John and Lois Roberts
Lee and Polly Spann
Anne Flick Steinbeck
John, Polly and Corb Wilson
Sharon and Larry Brown
Marty Hatcher
Betty Light
Duane Vandenbusche
