Gary Dwyer

Dwyer graduated from Syracuse University and SUNY with a double degree in Fine Arts and Landscape Architecture.  Immediately after graduating, he formed a construction company, participated in the master plans for Telluride Valley and Franconia College and then returned to his first love  -  sculpture - to earn a MFA from the University of Denver.  His first project was a sculpture garden for the Colorado Academy.  All along, Dwyer believed like Pericles that "what you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."  At Cal Poly, where he taught for 35 years, he became known as an inspiring, demanding, unconventional and beloved teacher and mentor.  During the same period, he created numerous works in sculpture and landscape architecture in the United States as well as France, Germany, and the former Yugoslavia.  His most important work may be the antiwar monument in Ravne na Korroskem, Slovenia, which became a national monument in 2000, but his favorite remained "The Garden of Time" created for the Minnesota State Prison for Women and later partially demolished when polliticians decided to increase the inmate population.  Tired of fighting politicians, Dwyer abandoned public art and turned to photography, a field that combined his passion for travel, art and poetry.  His last voice, said in a barely audible voice, echo his beliefs:  "we are all holding onto the the parts of the raft that are still floating and hoping for beauty yet in this storm."  His wife Odile, his daughters Heather and Chelsea, stepdaughter Celia, and five grandchildren, as well as his numerous friends and former students will keep this very special man in their hearts.  A celebration of his life will be held some time down the road when the world is a little safer, Donations may be given to World Monuments Fund.