glenna goodacre {april 15, 2023}

When Glenna Goodacre was a student and interested in becoming a sculptor, her art teacher discouraged her. He gave her a grade of “D,” told her that she had no ability to see in three dimensions and advised her to switch to painting. Ms. Goodacre did paint for a while, but went on to become a nationally known sculptor. Her works include the Vietnam Women’s Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, the Irish famine memorial in Philadelphia and the Sacagawea dollar coin. She also made a larger-than-life statue of President Ronald Reagan, which was unveiled at the Reagan Presidential Library in California 1998.

Perhaps her most famous piece is the bronze sculpture dedicated to the 11,500 women who served in Vietnam as nurses, intelligence analysts, air traffic controllers and other roles. Since it was unveiled on Veterans Day in 1993, it has become a gathering place for some of the 265,000 women who served in the military during the Vietnam era, and their loved ones.

“There will always be a place for commemorative sculpture because it is three-dimensional, people can walk up, identify, congregate, photograph, touch, be in the historical moment,” she said in 2015.

She was 80  when she died in April 2020.

Lincoln Park Civic Commons is a lovely park in my town for walking, eating lunch, walking dogs, or just sitting back and taking a breath. Through the years, it has become a spot for public art and in 2007 Glenna Goodacre placed two of her bronze statues in the park.

Back the day of teaching reading to 8th graders, one of the reading strategies was, and still is, connections. Connections bring meaning. So on their 8th grade field trip to Washington DC, the students saw Goodacre’s Vietnam Womens' Memorial. I told them about her statues in Lincoln Park, to connect meaning to a statue they saw in Washington DC to the same artist in their hometown. 

The Runner (2007)

Old Man and His Dog (2007)

Old Man and His Dog (2007)