Who is the man in the hat at the library? - Edmond, OK - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com

Visitors to the Edmond Library have likely wondered who posed for "The Reader" statue at the entrance. This news story from The Oklahoman answers that question.

Article text:

Charles Boldin describes himself as an "ordinary citizen who walks down the street unrecognized" - except maybe by anyone who has seen his statue in front of Edmond Library.

The statue of a man reading a newspaper was commissioned by the city of Edmond in 1985 in an effort to beautify the city, said Mary Lou Gresham, the statue's sculptor.

While attending the St. Mary's Episcopal Church art festival, Gresham was approached by a city official who saw several of her miniature clay pieces called pedestal people - small figurines in various poses - and asked her if she could do a life-size version in bronze, Gresham said.

Although Gresham had primarily worked with clay, she readily accepted the offer to help the city and the challenge of working with bronze.

But before Gresham could begin her work, she needed a model. So she looked through her black book of bronze supermodels she had worked with. Finding none, she decided to recruit one of her good friends, Boldin.

A Tulsa native, Gresham moved to Edmond during the 11th grade.

"I always took art classes," said Gresham, who said she was thwarted from sculpting until 1971 when she took a ceramics class at the University of Central Oklahoma.
"It was a chance to start working in three dimensions," she said.

But her exploration in the third dimension was temporarily halted when she moved to Germany in 1972 with her husband, who was in the Air Force.

When they returned three years later, Gresham resumed her 3-D voyage with sculpting classes at OCU.

Gresham also started attending Sunday school classes at First Baptist Church where she met Boldin.

"He's such a lovely man," said Gresham. "He reminded me of my grandfather."

Boldin, who was employed at Boys Ranch Town for 45 years and served as an administrator for 26, recalls the moment Gresham asked him for help.

"She called (one) evening and asked if I had a hat. I said no, I didn't."

But he quickly remembered a hat his brother had recently left, and told Gresham, "yes, I have a hat."

Several seconds later, Gresham walked through his door with a camera.

"She came over and wanted to take a picture of me with a hat on," said Boldin. "So I sat down at the kitchen dinette table and (she) took my picture reading a paper. That's the way it happened."

Gresham decided later that she should change the statue's facial expression so people would not recognize Boldin.

Boldin, 85, an Edmond resident since the early 1950s, has seen the city change since his arrival, and likes what he sees.

Although he may remain faceless in the crowd, his face will always be remembered at the Edmond Library.

Type of publication: Newspaper When was the article reported?: 09/14/2002 Publication: The Oklahoman Article Url: [Web Link] Is Registration Required?: no How widespread was the article reported?: local News Category: Arts/Culture

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