Girl with Dove
by Pastor Don Elmore
December 21, 2014
Scripture Reading: Matthew 7:13-14:
The United Nations Peace Plaza in Independence, Missouri was unveiled on October 27, 1997, formally dedicated by United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan on April 25, 2003, and is described by its creators as “the only memorial in the world to those persons serving in the Peacekeeping Forces of the United Nations....” In the center of this fountain is a 12.5-foot statue named “Girl with Dove” by its sculptor Tom Corbin and in 2003, a four-foot miniature was gifted to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
Who is Tom Corbin? I saw the picture of the statue that he made for the United Nations in my Miami University Alumni magazine. Tom Corbin was a 1976 graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. At Miami, he studied drawing while majoring in marketing. He started out as an advertising executive until a chance meeting with a bronze sculptor led to classes and thoughts of an art career, which he began in 1986. He made the six statues of children for the Children Fountain in Kansas City. And he made the sculptor the stands atop the United Nations Peace Plaza’s fountain in Independence, Missouri.