Newest sculpture honors the founder of the Vermont marble industry
Wednesday, Oct. 18 at noon—RUTLAND—The 11th sculpture on the Rutland Sculpture Trail, honoring business and civic leader Redfield Proctor, will be unveiled Oct. 18 in downtown Rutland.
The sculpture will be unveiled at noon that day in a garden area at 47 Merchants Row.
Redfield Proctor was a business and military leader, locally and nationally. A lawyer, he enlisted in the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War. He mustered out as a colonel from the 15th Vermont Infantry after the Battle of Gettysburg.
He became manager of Sutherland Falls Marble Company in 1869 and founded the Vermont Marble Company in 1880. Under his leadership, Vermont Marble Company became one of the world’s largest and most celebrated marble producers. The military headstones and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, the U.S. Supreme Court, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial and the United Nations was produced in Proctor.
He served as lieutenant governor, the 37th governor of Vermont and were secretary of war under President Harrison, where he was credited with improving morale and conditions for Army soldiers. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1891 until his death.
The sculpture, designed by Kellie Pereira and carved by Evan Morse and Taylor Apostol, is one in a series honoring regional history and planned through a collaboration by The Carving Studio and Sculpture Center, MKF Properties, Vermont Quarries, and Green Mountain Power. It was funded by Mark and Nancy Foley.
