Audrey Pantaz
Contributing Writer
A large bronze effigy has welcomed students back to campus from the back patio of Lowry Center. Before the fall 2024 semester began, The College of Wooster unveiled an eight-foot-tall sculpture titled “The Piper” located between Papp Stadium and Lowry Center. The bronze sculpture, donated by alumnus Wayne Randolph ’69 and his wife Wendy Randolph, depicts a Wooster Pipe Band member in traditional tartan regalia marching and playing the bagpipes.
“This beautiful new sculpture … embodies the spirit and tradition of our Wooster campus,” President Anne McCall shared her thoughts on the sculpture with the Voice. “I am grateful that our alumnus donor R. Wayne Randolph ’69 and his wife, Wendy W. Randolph chose to honor our campus with this sculpture.”
Wayne and Wendy Randolph chose the figure of a bagpiper as the subject of the sculpture, “I am Scottish, and Wooster is of Scottish origin.” Said Wayne Randolph, “While at Wooster I loved hearing the pipes, and I loved the pipe band. To see the pipe band playing and coming over the hill just before a football game is a sound and sight that a Wooster alumnus cannot forget and ought not to forget.”
Of why he chose to honor Wooster with a donation, Randolph shared, “Wooster taught me, and the rest of my classmates, a whole lot about many things, and in many ways. For me, one of Wooster’s biggest contributions, I like to say, is it ‘taught me how to think.’ I had 4 great years there, in every way.”
Randolph commissioned two artists to create the sculpture, sculptor James Sardonis and foundryman Glenn Campbell. Both artists met with the Voice to explain the figurine’s creation process.
Sardonis is a highly experienced sculptor, having completed sculptures for Yale University, the University of Vermont and Dartmouth Medical Center. He began the project by researching the Wooster Pipe Band in order to accurately depict a bagpipe player, creating two small models, one- and two-foot models and showed Randolph and a team of consultants at the College.
Once the model was completed, Sardonis conferred with Campbell, owner of Campbell Plaster and Iron in West Rutland, Vermont. Campbell measured the model using a machine called a pantograph, allowing him to create an eight-foot tall frame made of metal and wood, and covered in a layer of clay. Sardonis and his assistant then modeled the clay to create the form of the sculpture.
Once the surface of the sculpture was complete, Campbell used a process called lost-wax casting to create the form in bronze. He took a rubber mold of the sculpture and made a wax copy, which was cut into pieces and covered with a ceramic shell. The wax and ceramic pieces were submerged in boiling water, melting the wax. Molten bronze was cast into the shell, and once the bronze had cooled, the ceramic was broken off, revealing the completed sculpture.
Sardonis hopes that “The Piper” takes on a life of its own at Wooster. “[A sculpture] is a great thing to have on a college campus, both in terms of becoming a sort of focal point and a gathering spot,” said Sardonis. “Many of the pieces I’ve done incorporate seating. Like the circular base of the Piper, it is intended for people to sit around it and be able to interact with it a little more closely.”
Randolph shared with the Voice that as he grew from his time at Wooster his appreciation of the bagpipes has only increased. He said, “With my recent retirement after 50 years of veterinary practice, I am now taking bagpipe lessons, every Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m., and I practice daily.”
The Piper will have an official dedication ceremony during homecoming weekend –– formerly Black and Gold weekend –– on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 5:30 p.m.
