thedrifter
01-15-06, 07:34 AM
Vet monument gets unflagging support for I-4
Kelly Griffith | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted January 15, 2006
Orlando Sentinel
POLK CITY -- Longtime citrus grower Bob Pipping always enjoyed lining his Fort Meade groves with throngs of American flags, a rather surreal sight for motorists traveling across the rural countryside.
The late grower used to joke that he wasn't an auto dealer, even though he might look like one. Just a bit patriotic -- that was all.
Nothing might make Pipping prouder than seeing the downsized Iwo Jima monument he commissioned by the original sculptor in 1990 permanently placed at an Interstate 4 rest stop near Lakeland as an honor to veterans. Neglected for a while after his death, the monument was rescued from his grove alongside I-4 in 2001 as construction plowed through.
"It was so grown up you couldn't see it unless you were standing right in front of it in the grove," said Larry McLaughlin, a retired Marine from Lakeland, who is heading an effort to have the monument moved from where it is now at the Fantasy of Flight air museum in Polk City to the rest stop at mile marker 46.
McLaughlin remembers talking to Pipping, a Navy veteran, one day many years ago. Pipping said he wanted to put up something in his grove along I-4 to honor all veterans, living and dead, from all wars. He wanted to find the most-recognized military symbol there was: a ship, a tank, a plane, something.
Then, it hit him: the famous Iwo Jima monument at Arlington National Cemetery, in actuality a memorial to fallen Marines.
Patterned after a 1945 Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph by Joe Rosenthal, the iconic monument shows six men raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, a volcanic island where Japanese soldiers were entrenched in caves during the closing months of World War II. The sight of the risen flag sparked celebration by men on ships just offshore.
So Pipping called the original sculptor, Felix de Weldon, and asked him to design a life-size bronze tribute patterned after his famous Arlington version. This one, however, would have a simpler design with motorists in mind, leaving off two of the six men. It was finished in 1990.
When he was alive, Pipping said he would get dozens of letters about it and at least two calls a month. He never would tell how much it cost to build, saying only that it was in five figures. He never had his name posted near it.
"I was in school when he had the thing built," said his daughter, Alice Skipper, 39, of Lakeland. "My father didn't brag. I can remember sitting on the front porch and reading the newspaper story about my daddy doing this and thinking, 'Wow, that's neat.' He never liked attention for anything, though, especially this."
The sculpture was a popular sight along I-4 between Orlando and Lakeland for years. But after Pipping was killed in a traffic accident in 1999, his daughters inherited the property and monument. They were happy when a veterans group came along that wanted to do something with it.
Construction crews were threatening to destroy the piece if it wasn't not moved, McLaughlin said, and gave him 30 days to hurry up or else. He pulled together the help and saved it.
The group quickly formed a nonprofit organization to raise money to refurbish it and now, after several months of rehab, it is stronger than it's ever been, he said.
Later this month, a five-member committee appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, including representatives from the Florida Department of Transportation and veterans organizations, will begin to formulate new rules for groups that want to put monuments at state rest stops. The effort was called for in a legislative measure passed last year that was called the Ellwood Robinson "Bob" Pipping Jr. Memorial Act.
While the bill bears her father's name, Skipper gives McLaughlin much of the credit, as well.
"He's done so much," she said. "He's incredible. He's just so passionate."
Monument online
For more information on the monument, go to iwojimamonument.org.
Kelly Griffith can be reached at kgriffith@orlandosentinel.com or 863-422-5908.
Ellie
Kelly Griffith | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted January 15, 2006
Orlando Sentinel
POLK CITY -- Longtime citrus grower Bob Pipping always enjoyed lining his Fort Meade groves with throngs of American flags, a rather surreal sight for motorists traveling across the rural countryside.
The late grower used to joke that he wasn't an auto dealer, even though he might look like one. Just a bit patriotic -- that was all.
Nothing might make Pipping prouder than seeing the downsized Iwo Jima monument he commissioned by the original sculptor in 1990 permanently placed at an Interstate 4 rest stop near Lakeland as an honor to veterans. Neglected for a while after his death, the monument was rescued from his grove alongside I-4 in 2001 as construction plowed through.
"It was so grown up you couldn't see it unless you were standing right in front of it in the grove," said Larry McLaughlin, a retired Marine from Lakeland, who is heading an effort to have the monument moved from where it is now at the Fantasy of Flight air museum in Polk City to the rest stop at mile marker 46.
McLaughlin remembers talking to Pipping, a Navy veteran, one day many years ago. Pipping said he wanted to put up something in his grove along I-4 to honor all veterans, living and dead, from all wars. He wanted to find the most-recognized military symbol there was: a ship, a tank, a plane, something.
Then, it hit him: the famous Iwo Jima monument at Arlington National Cemetery, in actuality a memorial to fallen Marines.
Patterned after a 1945 Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph by Joe Rosenthal, the iconic monument shows six men raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, a volcanic island where Japanese soldiers were entrenched in caves during the closing months of World War II. The sight of the risen flag sparked celebration by men on ships just offshore.
So Pipping called the original sculptor, Felix de Weldon, and asked him to design a life-size bronze tribute patterned after his famous Arlington version. This one, however, would have a simpler design with motorists in mind, leaving off two of the six men. It was finished in 1990.
When he was alive, Pipping said he would get dozens of letters about it and at least two calls a month. He never would tell how much it cost to build, saying only that it was in five figures. He never had his name posted near it.
"I was in school when he had the thing built," said his daughter, Alice Skipper, 39, of Lakeland. "My father didn't brag. I can remember sitting on the front porch and reading the newspaper story about my daddy doing this and thinking, 'Wow, that's neat.' He never liked attention for anything, though, especially this."
The sculpture was a popular sight along I-4 between Orlando and Lakeland for years. But after Pipping was killed in a traffic accident in 1999, his daughters inherited the property and monument. They were happy when a veterans group came along that wanted to do something with it.
Construction crews were threatening to destroy the piece if it wasn't not moved, McLaughlin said, and gave him 30 days to hurry up or else. He pulled together the help and saved it.
The group quickly formed a nonprofit organization to raise money to refurbish it and now, after several months of rehab, it is stronger than it's ever been, he said.
Later this month, a five-member committee appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, including representatives from the Florida Department of Transportation and veterans organizations, will begin to formulate new rules for groups that want to put monuments at state rest stops. The effort was called for in a legislative measure passed last year that was called the Ellwood Robinson "Bob" Pipping Jr. Memorial Act.
While the bill bears her father's name, Skipper gives McLaughlin much of the credit, as well.
"He's done so much," she said. "He's incredible. He's just so passionate."
Monument online
For more information on the monument, go to iwojimamonument.org.
Kelly Griffith can be reached at kgriffith@orlandosentinel.com or 863-422-5908.
Ellie