Denny Rogers Page 2 - Fox Chapel Publishing

Is it possible to put a massive Great Seal of the United States, the Seal of the President of the United States, and the heads of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Ronald Reagan in bronze on the face of an Illinois cliff?

Denny Rogers ’73, M.S. ’80, will answer in the affirmative. Rogers has partnered with nationally known artists across the country to build a team for the project. Illinois Senator Bill Brady, who is also a construction developer, has committed to assist
with raising funds for what will be known as the Illinois Presidents Monument (IPM). Brady is national chair and spokesman for the endeavor. “We don’t have mountains and granite in Illinois, but we do have rolling hills, and the easiest thing to do in construction is move dirt. We will create the massive cliff to suspend the five bronzes,” said Rogers, who is the lead designer and sculptor for the project. He envisions the IPM on a site of about 600 acres, ideally somewhere in Reagan country near Tampico or Dixon.

The acreage is needed to accommodate an 8,000-seat amphitheatre for events that will create revenue to pay for the monument after seed money is obtained. A lodge and restaurant, reflecting lake, presidential museum, art gallery, wooded nature trails, and wildlife habitats are also planned. These elements will guarantee the IPM becomes a magnet for visitors from across the country and around the world, creating the same attention as Mount Rushmore.

Rogers compares his effort to that of the work required to complete the monument in South Dakota. “Sculptor Gutzon Borglum
had political perception problems with Mount Rushmore, but he found one lone senator who located $2 million. The mountain has become a bright sparkling jewel to this country and inspired so many to excellence, while also generating billions and billions of dollars in international tourist trade,” Rogers said. “The IPM would do no less for Illinois, and it wouldn’t hurt America one bit to have a reason to visit flyover country.”

Brady sees the same potential. He is consequently happy to speak out for the project that will be done without using taxpayer’s dollars. “We must assume our natural leadership role in America,” Brady said. “Increasing international visitor’s trade is but one small step in doing so. With today’s technology, creating an Illinois Presidents Monument is possible.”

Plans for the IPM were put on hold until after Reagan’s death. They have progressed to the point that Rogers has the blueprint formulated. Artists, sculptors, and construction teams will first build the cliff, which Rogers compares to creating a nuclear containment wall. A massive network of steel and rebar will be required to shape the necessary structural support. Rogers envisions pouring tinted, colored concrete with spun fiberglass in the mix.

The cliff will hold the faces, each of which will be 40 feet from the lower neck to the top of the head. The three faces combined will be roughly 20 feet high from chin to hairline. Total width of the image with the seals included will be 120 feet, with the projected cliff mounting surface as much as 200 feet long and 60 feet high. A foundry building will be erected at the site to complete life-size replicas that will be cast in sections and assembled. It’s a complex construction project that will bring artists, technicians, construction teams, teachers, and graduate students together. In the making, it will draw on expertise and support across fields as diverse as art, science, history, education, technology, business, construction trades, and government.

In an initial three-year, research start-up phase, the project will require funding from one or several national corporations. “They must be willing to work together to fund from their corporate educational grant foundations a three-year, advanced university graduate student research and design program of work and study,” Rogers said. University sponsorship will be a second key element, with Rogers serving as a visiting professor at participating schools. The third is to gather “a state and national blue-ribbon committee of diversified, prominent citizens” who will raise seed money from many corporate and individual sources to underwrite the start-up work that will follow on site, Rogers said.

The effort sounds as monumental as the finished project. And yet, Rogers and Brady are not intimidated. Rogers knows it can be built and how to build it. His determination is apparent in one simple question.“If Illinois country boys of simple parentage don’t take the lead in honoring our Illinois presidents of other-than-noble birth as an inspiration for all future, humble-born Americans, who will?”

Monument to Illinois presidents is artist’s passion