Sculptor Frank Chalfant Gaylord II was born on March 9, 1925, in Clarksburg. Educated in local schools, he was drafted soon after graduating from Washington Irving High School in 1943 and spent two years serving in World War II as a paratrooper in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. At the war’s end, he enrolled in the School of Art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh under the GI Bill. After two years of study, he transferred to Temple University, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1950.
The following year, he moved to Barre, Vermont where he served as an apprentice stonecutter at E. J. Bachlender Company, carving gravestones, monuments and other projects as assigned. Establishing his own studio in 1967 he eventually became a well-known figure in his field.
Gaylord’s best known work is “The Column,” a platoon of 19 larger-than-life, stainless steel soldiers comprising the central element of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Based on personal military experiences and memories of those with whom he served, Gaylord’s tableau represents an ethnic cross-section of America and all branches of the military. Located near the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall’s west end, the memorial was dedicated by President Bill Clinton and President Kim Young-sam of South Korea on July 27, 1995.
In 2002, when a photograph of “The Column” was reproduced by the U.S. Postal Service on a first class stamp, Gaylord sued for copyright infringement. After a lengthy legal battle, the sculptor was ultimately awarded the sum of $684,845 in damages.
Other notable works by Gaylord include monuments celebrating historical figures including President Calvin Coolidge, Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler, Vermont’s first governor Thomas Crittenden, Connecticut governor Ella Grasso, Pennsylvania’s founding father William Penn and playwright William Shakespeare.
Gaylord died in Northfield, Vermont on March 21, 2018.
This Article was written by John A. Cuthbert
Last Revised on January 12, 2024
Cite This Article
Cuthbert, John A. "Frank C. Gaylord." e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. 12 January 2024. Web. 23 April 2024.
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