This statue of Wangari Maathai, Nobel Laureate and an alumna of Mount St Scholastica College, Class of 1964 in Atchison KS stands in the center of this pretty college campus along the Missouri River. It was sculpted by Bill Hopen, and installed in 2014.
A plaque at the base of the statue reads as follows:
"On this wonderful occasion, I call on all Kenyans and those around the world to celebrate by planing a tree, wherever you are."
Wagari Maathai, October 9, 2004, Nairobi
This Sugar Maple tree
Honors our classmate and friend
WANGARI MAATHAI
"Mary Jo"
Recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize 2004
Mount St Scholastica College
Class of 1964"
Ms. Mathai is dressed in traditional African dress, with an elaborate traditional head-wrapping made of colorful cloth. Dhe is smiling and holding a small ready-to-plant native tree at her waist. The tree's root ball is encased in a bag. This tree-planting effort is what earned her the Nobel Prize.
Ms. Maathai's traditional dress does not have a collar, but hangs off her shoulders,and is accented with a traditional African beaded necklace with a round pendant. The dress in in two parts, a blouse and a skirt that reaches the floor and has a ruffle below the knee. Her feet are obscured by plants.
Behind her, a young established tree stands, It appears to be of the same kind as Maathai is holding stands, representing both the preservation of existing trees and planting new ones, which was the foundation of Maathai's transformative Greenbelt Movement.
From Benedictine College: (
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"NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE IMMORTALIZED WITH STATUE AT BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
Wangari Maathai Remembered During 50th Reunion of her Classmates
Published:Tuesday, June 24, 2014
A special dedication on Saturday, June 14, saw the placement of a statue of the late Wangari Maathai, a 1964 graduate of Mount St. Scholastica College, now Benedictine College, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Maathai was selected for her efforts to promote democracy, peace and sustainable development and she was the first Peace Prize winner to have an environmental focus. She was the only Nobel Peace Prize Laureate to graduate from a U.S. Catholic college.
“To have a statue of Wangari Maathai on our campus has been a dream for a while, and it is appropriate that it is here in St. Scholastica Plaza, where our students will see it and aspire to be like her,” said Benedictine College President Stephen D. Minnis.
The statue was made possible through a combined effort and the generosity of the Mount Class of ’64, the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica Monastery and Benedictine College. The lead gift was provided by Wangari’s longtime friend and classmate, Florence (Conrad) Salisbury, and her husband, Alan. The sculptor was Bill Hopen, who had previously done the statues of two students and a Benedictine Sister, along with a bas relief, that grace St. Scholastica Plaza outside of Elizabeth Hall.
“It was such an honor to be selected to do this portrait,” said Hopen. “I’ve done many portraits of famous people; astronauts, senators, millionaires. I have to tell you, this is the most favorite subject I’ve ever had. But it was a challenge in many ways. For instance, there was the smile. It is never done in bronze but it had to be in Wangari’s case because there are no pictures of her that exist without this optimistic, positive, charismatic smile. It had to be expressed.”
The event included a poem written by Sister Thomasita Homan, OSB, a Benedictine Sister from the Mount, former professor at Benedictine College, and a close personal friend of Maathai. Mount St. Scholastica Monastery’s Prioress, Sister Anne Shepard, OSB, gave her thoughts on Wangari and offered the closing prayer. In attendance were many of Wangari’s classmates who were in Atchison for their 50th reunion, including her Kenyan classmate, Agatha Wangeci Kahara.
Wangari and Agatha came to the United States and Mount St. Scholastica College in 1960 as part of the Kennedy Airlift. The airlift originated when a Kenyan educator approached then-Senator John F. Kennedy with the information that hundreds of Kenyan students had been given scholarships to American universities through the African-American Students Foundation, but didn’t have the money to get to the United States. Kennedy tapped his family’s personal Kennedy Foundation to provide airfare for the students, including Wangari and Agatha.
Salisbury, a dear friend of Wangari’s who used to take her home over the summers, spoke at the dedication and noted that Kenya was a new country at the time, just emerging from colonial rule in 1963. The girls would face trying times when they ultimately returned to their home country.
“They went home and did what George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and our Founding Fathers did, they became Founding Mothers,” she said. “They suffered terribly. We knew much about what Wangari suffered. Agatha endured every bit as much, maybe more. We did not know that and we must honor her, along with Wangari, for their dedication in establishing the underpinnings of democracy in Kenya.”
Discrimination based on gender and tribal background was rampant in the 1960s in Nairobi. Wangari was even denied a job based on her tribe. She still managed to pursue her education and got married. She was thrust into the political arena when her husband decided to run for office in 1969. By 1971 she had completed her dissertation and earned her doctorate, the first woman to do so in Kenya and all of east and central Africa. In 1977, after conducting research that linked problems within the Kenyan economy and society to deforestation, she founded the Green Belt Movement. The group has planted more than 40 million trees in the last 37 years and has brought environmental issues into the realm of world politics.
Kahara stated that Wangari was able to use the Green Belt umbrella to protect urban green spaces, forests and water towers from being destroyed.
“Whenever she saw anything wrong, she made it her business to put things right. Wangari never stopped to calculate how much it was going cost her in terms of physical injury, loss of property or imprisonment,” she said. “She only looked at and considered the end result, with total regard to the benefits of the present and future generations.”
During the ceremony, Salisbury recalled Wangari’s famous hummingbird story about taking action. In the story, a hummingbird carrying small droplets of water in an attempt to put out a forest fire is stopped by other animals who say she isn’t making any difference. The hummingbird acknowledges that she is small, but she is doing all she can.
“If she were here today, Wangari would say ‘But I was only doing my little thing. I plant trees,’” Salisbury said. “So each of us needs to find our little thing and do that little thing. And if each of us does that little thing, the world will be a better place and we will have followed in her footsteps in some humble way.”
From the Greenbelt movement website: (
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"Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. In its citation, the Norwegian Nobel Committee noted Professor Maathai’s contribution to “sustainable development, democracy and peace.” The Committee further stated that Professor Maathai “stands at the front of the fight to promote ecologically viable social, economic and cultural development in Kenya and in Africa. She has taken a holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights and women’s rights in particular. She thinks globally and acts locally.” In accepting the award, Professor Maathai said: “I believe the Nobel committee was sending a message that protecting and restoring the environment contributes to peace; it is peace work. . . . I always felt that our work was not simply about planting trees. It was about inspiring people to take charge of their environment, the system that governed them, their lives, and their future.”"
From the Benedictine College website: (
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"WANGARI MAATHAI DAY - MARCH 3
In recognition of the work of the late Wangari Maathai, Nobel Laureate and Benedictine alumna, the African Union has designated March 3, every year, as Wangari Maathai Day. Benedictine College joins with the Green Belt Movement, founded by Wangari as a means to preserve the world’s forests, and other environmental organizations, government agencies, and nations around the world in remembering Wangari and recognizing the value of her ideals of good governance, environmental sustainability, and the expansion of democracy.
When Wangari accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 2004, she made her alma mater the only Catholic college in America with a Peace Prize winner among its alumni. Maathai, from Kenya, came to the United States as part of the Kennedy Airlift in 1960 and earned a degree in biology from Mount St. Scholastica College, now Benedictine College, in 1964.
On December 10, 2014, the college marked the 10th Anniversary of the Nobel ceremony by announcing the winners of two new Maathai Discovery Awards. A donor stepped up and gave the funds for Mount St. Scholastica to endow the awards in Wangari’s name and Sister Helen Mueting, OSB, announced the first recipients.
“The winners of the inaugural Maathai Discovery Awards are Caleb Schmitz, from Dodgeville, Wisconsin, and Emily Dyer, from Elkhorn, Nebraska,” said S. Helen.
Each Maathai Discovery Award carries a $500 stipend for the student, and up to an additional $500 to complete their proposed Discovery Project. The award supports projects that focus on stewardship, sustainability, women’s equality, and/or environmental justice.
“Those were exciting times at the college as we had one of our own win the Nobel Peace Prize,” said Benedictine College President Stephen D. Minnis, who traveled to Oslo to attend the 2004 ceremony. “When you were with Wangari Maathai, you knew you were in the presence of greatness, but she put you perfectly at ease.”
Wangari returned to Benedictine College in 2007 to give an address that drew thousands and made national news. She passed away in 2011 after battling cancer. Since then, the College has remembered her in several ways. Her classmates from the Mount Class of ’64 planted a tree in St. Scholastica Plaza on the college campus and earlier this year her statue was erected next to that tree.
President Minnis also recognized the Student Government Association’s Campus Development Committee and the new Sustainability Club, both student organizations working toward a greener campus, which he said Maathai would have loved.
Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977 after conducting research that linked Kenyan economic and societal problems to deforestation. Since then, the group has planted more than 40 million trees worldwide has brought environmental issues into the realm of international politics. She won the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote democracy, peace and sustainable development and is the first Peace Prize winner to have an environmental focus.
Founded in 1858, Benedictine College is a Catholic, Benedictine, residential, liberal arts college located on the bluffs above the Missouri River in Atchison, Kansas. The school is proud to have been named one of America’s Best Colleges by U.S. News & World Report as well as one of the top Catholic colleges in the nation by First Things magazine and the Newman Guide. It prides itself on outstanding academics, extraordinary faith life, strong athletic programs, and an exceptional sense of community and belonging. It has a mission to educate men and women within a community of faith and scholarship."