Anne Kibbler, director of communications and media relations with the Media School, left, and Bonnie Brownlee, department of journalism chair, right, chat with artist Tuck Langland during the installation of a bronze Ernie Pyle statute outside Franklin Hall at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014. Chris Howell | Herald-Times
Journalist Ernie Pyle lived with the troops in World War II.
He went where they went, ate where they ate and saw what they saw.
“He’s out in the field. He sleeps in ditches,” said sculptor Tuck Langland.
But on Thursday, Pyle returned to Indiana University – where he attended and left just shy of graduating. This time though, it was a bronze version of the famous journalist installed outside of Franklin Hall, the future home of the IU Media School.
Langland created the Pyle statue and also sculpted the Herman B Wells statue, which was dedicated in 2000. The sculptor came to campus to oversee the installation of the Pyle statue and said he’d be back for the inauguration of the Media School and dedication of the statue at 2 p.m. Oct 17 in President’s Hall of Franklin Hall.
However, the statue won’t be covered in the meantime so passersby can already see the statue, considered one of “three iconic sculptures” of campus with the Wells and Hoagy Carmichael statues.
In the statue, Pyle is wearing a borrowed leather bomber jacket with goggles – which he often wore in the North Africa campaign – pushed up on his knit cap, Langland said. He said Pyle is sitting on an ammunition box and has his typewriter – with the true detail of broken lever – along with his notes and a coffee cup on a table that's a little warped.
“He’s got a column to write,” Langland said.
A second ammunition box is on the other side of the table so visitors can put their laptop on the table and work alongside Pyle, much like they can sit with Wells and Carmichael.
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