ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603040049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
THE APRIL 19 BOMBING bothered Ken Simpson so much that he crafted a tribute to the victims and their rescuers.
A Franklin County artist prepared to leave for Oklahoma City on Saturday afternoon, his memorial to last April's terrorist attack strapped to a flat-bed truck.
The April 19 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building had lain heavy on his mind, Ken Simpson said. The idea for a sculpture that would serve as a remembrance of the victims and a tribute to their rescuers came to Simpson in his sleep one night.
"That a tragedy like that would happen in this country, it just bothered the hell out of me," he said. "Then, I had that dream."
Simpson created an 11-foot-4-inch half-ton sculpture that depicts a fireman holding a limp child in his arms. The firefighter represents all the people involved in the rescue following the bombing, and the child represents all the victims, dead and alive, Simpson said.
The firefighter's feet are skirted by a circle of candle holders, each bearing the name of a child who died in the attack, and the firefighter stands on the torso of a prostrate figure holding a stick of dynamite, who Simpson said represents those responsible for the bombing.
Simpson built the sculpture over a period of five weeks from welded scrap metal - old 55-gallon barrels and tubing - and painted it flat black. Its base is formed from steel beams donated by a friend who builds boat docks on Smith Mountain Lake. Brass plaques bearing the names of the 169 people killed in the bombing are attached to the legs of the base.
A former real estate salesman, Simpson runs the Metalman gallery in the Lake Center shopping center at Virginia 122 and 616. The gallery is filled with Simpson's metal artwork, including fish-shaped toilet paper holders, which he said have been very popular items, and a metal chess set of dogs vs. cats.
Simpson grew up on a beef farm near Gretna in Pittsylvania County and learned welding in an agriculture class in high school. He still works with the 30-year-old Lincoln welder that he used around the farm.
Outside his shop Saturday, a small group of well-wishers took pictures and waited to see Simpson off. A hitch developed, though. The sculpture, which was lashed to the truck bed standing up, was determined to be too tall for some of the highway underpasses along the route to Oklahoma City.
Dan Kauffman of Gates Transfer in Altavista, who donated his time and truck to make the trip, called for another truck with a lower bed. It would be 18 inches shorter and should take care of the problem, he told Simpson.
Kauffman said he was looking forward to the journey, though he had never driven a truck farther west than Memphis, Tenn.
"Central Virginia hasn't had any tragedies like [Oklahoma City]," Kauffman said. "We can feel for the people that had to go through it."
Simpson's father, Carroll, who grew up in Roanoke, thinks his son's gesture is a good thing, if Oklahoma City will make good use of it.
"I feel they will," he said.
Mark Schwartz, an Oklahoma City councilman, visited Franklin County last June and saw the sculpture. Schwartz has accepted it on behalf of his city, Simpson said.
Simpson hopes his work eventually ends up in a park proposed for the site of the former federal building.
"That's exactly where I'd like to see it," he said.
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