Robert Russin

1914-2007

Robert Isaiah Russin was born on Aug. 26, 1914, in New York City. World War I had begun just a month earlier; still, New York City was a bustling metropolis, already a center for the arts and a great place for a young artist to learn his trade. Russin would have been exposed to New York’s many public sculptures, located in nearly every major public park.

A young Russin would have had access to some of the greatest works of sculpture from antiquity to modern times in New York’s superb collections. No doubt such exposure would have had a lasting impact on the young artist.

Russin was educated at the City College of New York where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1933 and his master’s in 1935. He completed additional graduate work at New York’s Beaux Arts Institute of Design. Already accomplished by his mid-twenties, Russin won two national federal sculpture competitions. While still in New York, Russin taught at the Cooper Union Art School for three years. He later earned a Ford Foundation fellowship, which allowed him to study in Italy.

In 1947, Russin made a dramatic change and left New York for Laramie, Wyo., where he accepted a teaching position at the University of Wyoming. The young artist and his wife and children experienced quite a culture shock, relocating from the metropolis to a small, windswept university town, but the move was definitely a positive one. Russin came to consider Wyoming his home. He taught at the university for four decades.

Once retired, Russin assumed the position of resident artist at UW, continuing his relationship with the university while pursuing his highly successful artistic career. A dedicated educator, Russin created the Robert Russin Excellence Award in Figurative Sculpture, which continues his artistic and educational legacy to this day. The award can be a scholarship, or a fellowship for a post-bachelor student preparing a portfolio to apply for graduate study.

Russin's 13-feet-high bust of Abraham Lincoln sits on top of a 35-feet-tall granite base at the summit of Interstate 80 between Laramie, Wyo. and Cheyenne. The sculptor's ashes are interred inside the base. AARoads.Russin died in 2007 at the age of 93, leaving as lasting legacies both his work and the countless students who had learned from a master. His ashes were interred inside the hollow granite base of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Monument, one of his best-known works.

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