C. Warner Williams - Plaques Honoring Knute Rockne

C. Warner Williams Completes Work For Two Bronze Plaques Honoring Knute Rockne and Saint Cabrini
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 1962
Culver Citizen

To Be Erected In Hillside, Ill., and Voss, Norway

Sculptor Warner Williams, artist-in-residence at Culver Military Academy, has completed work for two new bronze plaques honoring the memory of t h e late Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne and Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini.

The Rockne plaque was commissioned last summer and is to be erected in Rockne's hometown of Voss, Norway. The plaque of Saint Cabrini will be placed in the Queen of Heaven mausoleum in Hillside, Ill.

The idea of placing a plaque in Rockne's memory in Voss originated with a group of Norwegian patriots living in Chicago. The American Embassy in Norway will be in charge of special commemorative ceremonies when the plaque is erected in Voss.

A 24 by 32-inch tablet, the Rockne plaque carries a double inscription, one in Norwegian and one in English. It reads "Giant of American Football KNUTE ROCKNE Was born here March 4, 1888 He left Norway as a small boy and became a pioneer and all-time great in American football as a player and a coach at the University of Notre Dame. Died March 31, 1931 DEDICATED — 1962"

Rockne left Voss, Norway in 1893, when he was five years old and came to America. He entered Notre Dame in 1913 and became widely known as a football player in the years that followed. In 1918 he became coach at Notre Dame and until death ended his career in an airplane accident in 1931, created a record that included 105 victories, 12 defeats, five ties, and five seasons in which Notre Dame was unbeaten and untied.

Canonization usually takes place many years, sometimes centuries, after death. But in the case of Mother Cabrini, who was the first American citizen to attain this honor, this regulation was waived by direct order of Pope Pius XI.

Among her good works was the establishment of hospitals and other charitable institutions in the United States and in many foreign countries. She arrived in this country in 1889 and died, at the age of 67, in 1917.

Williams was a free lance sculptor-designer in Chicago before he became associated with Culver in 1940. He had done a great deal of portraiture work in addition to supervising the art program at the Academy. He also is interested in and teaches astronomy, telescope making and photography at Culver.

Williams also has done bas-relief portraits of author George Ade, symphony orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski, cartoonist John McCutcheon, pianist Alec Templeton, and American Medical Association President Dr. William A. Pusey.

Born in Henderson, Ky., Williams attended Berea ( K y .) College, Butler University, Indianapolis, Ind.; Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis; and the Chicago Art Institute . He graduated with honors in art history and appreciation at Chicago Art Institute, and received scholarships at three other schools.



Sculptor Warner Williams works with a clay model in creating the plaque honoring the memory of late Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne. Williams had a series of Rockne pictures from which to work, but selected one of the most familiar pictures of the famous coach in preparing the model later cast in bronze





This is the clay model of a bronze plaque of the late Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne to be erected in his hometown of Voss, Norway. Sculptor C. Warner Williams recently completed the Rockne plaque after working with various photographs of the famous coach



C. Warner Williams - The Artist Index