Artist Joshua Diedrich (far right) is pictured along with (left to right) Carleen Jenney, Coach Maskill’s grandson Tim Fabry, and Kathy Towne around the Coach Maskill sculpture.
By Bruce Rolfe
Family members and close friends of the legendary late long time Galesburg-Augusta football coach Bill Maskill had the opportunity to see a nearly completed sculpture Kalamazoo artist Joshua Diedrich is making of the Hall of Fame coach July 3 and they were very pleased.
Maskill’s daughter, Jayne Maskill, his grandson, Tim Fabry, Dale Martin, Carleen Jenney, Dave Dickson, and Kathy Towne met at Diedrich’s Kalamazoo studio to look at the nearly finished sculpture. Maskill’s son Billy and his wife Mary Helen, who live in Texas, joined in through Facetime to get a look at the sculpture they last saw in May.
With Diedrich needing to schedule the sculpture to be finished at a foundry, the family was allowed one more opportunity to suggest any changes.
But judging from their feedback, the sculpture Diedrich made exceeded their expectations.
The finished project will be a three-quarter full sized figure, life size, but cut off at mid thigh. The sculpture will show Maskill being raised up on the shoulders of his football players after a milestone win for Maskill in 1982.
The scene is from the October 15, 1982 G-A football game when Maskill won his 213th game to become the all time winning coach in Michigan history. G-A beat Paw Paw 41-12 that night. The October 20, 1982 Galesburg Argus said after the win Maskill was carried on the shoulders of his players for a period of time followed by an informal reception at midfield.
From his smile, to the hearing aid piece he wore and other details like the veins in Maskill’s neck and high cheek bones, family members and friends felt Diedrich did an incredible job capturing characteristics and emotion without knowing the hall of fame coach.
“For an artist to create this, for coach, and he didn’t know him, he got a flavor of his personality and who he was and that is brilliant. So he was able to connect it. It just really reflects who coach is. Who he was and who he is and how many people he touched,” said Maskill’s daughter Jayne Maskill.
“The hand on the back. That’s what it was all about,” adds the late coach’s daughter.
Mary Helen, Maskill’s daughter-in-law, especially liked how Diedrich captured the emotion of the moment with Coach’s smile and with a player’s hand on Maskill’s back while he was sitting on the players’ shoulders.
“I think it’s awesome. He’s (Diedrich) done a great job of getting really close to what coach actually looked like. I think when it’s all finished and done, the helmets and hands, just everything that is there is going to really represent what coach is,” adds Maskill’s son Billy, who recently retired following a remarkable 22-year run as Midwestern State University’s head football coach, compiling 160 wins as the program’s all-time leader in wins while leading the Mustangs to five Lone Star Conference championships and nine postseason appearances.
Carleen Jenney, a close friend of Jayne Maskill and the family, said she liked how realistic Diedrich made Coach Maskill’s face look.
Martin, who knew Maskill for 61 years, said he was very happy with the sculpture and felt the sculpture will be embraced by the public.
As some family members and friends looked at the sculpture and took in how real the figure looks, tears started to develop.
“It looks like my grandpa,” said Maskill’s grandson, Tim Fabry, who had some tears in his eyes as he looked at the sculpture of his grandfather.
Diedrich said he engineered the face and upper part of the sculpture so it is angling down so water will not pool up inside the hood.
Diedrich said he still has to perform some final touchup work to make the sculpture look more realistic. He said any seams he had in place to make the mold, will be gone.
The Kalamazoo artist said after he does his final touch up work, he will make a rubber mold. The rubber mold will have a hard shell called a jacket, which is usually plaster or fiber glass, bolted together around the sculpture. When the hard shell is removed it is bolted together and molton foundry wax is poured into the shell. The wax is poured in and out of the shell two or three times to build up about a quarter inch wall of thickness. The figure is pulled out of the mold and any mistakes created by the wax in the mold are cleaned up.
Once the sculpture goes to the foundry there are many parts of the process before the piece is completed.
Diedrich said the wax is dipped in a series of ceramic shells. He said the wax is dipped in a clay-slurry mixture and then sand is applied. The sculpture is allowed to dry a day and then the clay-slurry mixture followed by applying sand process is repeated four or five more times until there is a fit, ceramic shell around the whole sculpture.
Diedrich said the ceramic shell is then placed into a kiln, which fires it into a pot. The wax, which is melted at a much lower temperature, then all melts out through a hole, leaving a hollow pot with the shape of the wax pieces on the inside. The pot is then heated up in a different kiln.
“You put it in sand, you heat up bronze, you pour the molten bronze into that pot so that it fills up all of the space where the wax used to be. Then you take a hammer and smash off the pot and you have the sculpture inside. It’s usually going to be in five or six pieces at least, so you weld those pieces back together and grind down all of the seams so you can’t ever see where it was. And then you treat the surface with various chemicals so it doesn’t corrode. It will turn green in the acid rain eventually if you don’t do that,” explained Diedrich of the final part of the process.
Some may think Diedrich would be uneasy about the final process at the foundry when all of his hard work is literally melted away. But he said he doesn’t get too concerned because he will keep the original mold so in a worst case scenario he could go back to the mold and make a new wax figure.
“This is going to be trashed once I finish the mold. Once I make the wax, the mold is trashed. Once the ceramic shell is done the wax turns to liquid. Once you pour the bronze in, the ceramic is trashed. You have to destroy the piece like five times in a row in order to make the bronze,” said Diedrich.
It is hoped the sculpture can be installed and unveiled at a home game this fall at Maskill Field, however Diedrich said it will be out of his control once it goes to the foundry, leaving the possibility an unveiling event may have to take place later.
Family members and close friends of the legendary late long time Galesburg-Augusta football coach Bill Maskill had the opportunity to see a nearly completed sculpture Kalamazoo artist Joshua Diedrich is making of the Hall of Fame coach July 3 and they were very pleased.
Maskill’s daughter, Jayne Maskill, his grandson, Tim Fabry, Dale Martin, Carleen Jenney, Dave Dickson, and Kathy Towne met at Diedrich’s Kalamazoo studio to look at the nearly finished sculpture. Maskill’s son Billy and his wife Mary Helen, who live in Texas, joined in through Facetime to get a look at the sculpture they last saw in May.
With Diedrich needing to schedule the sculpture to be finished at a foundry, the family was allowed one more opportunity to suggest any changes.
But judging from their feedback, the sculpture Diedrich made exceeded their expectations.
The finished project will be a three-quarter full sized figure, life size, but cut off at mid thigh. The sculpture will show Maskill being raised up on the shoulders of his football players after a milestone win for Maskill in 1982.
The scene is from the October 15, 1982 G-A football game when Maskill won his 213th game to become the all time winning coach in Michigan history. G-A beat Paw Paw 41-12 that night. The October 20, 1982 Galesburg Argus said after the win Maskill was carried on the shoulders of his players for a period of time followed by an informal reception at midfield.
From his smile, to the hearing aid piece he wore and other details like the veins in Maskill’s neck and high cheek bones, family members and friends felt Diedrich did an incredible job capturing characteristics and emotion without knowing the hall of fame coach.
“For an artist to create this, for coach, and he didn’t know him, he got a flavor of his personality and who he was and that is brilliant. So he was able to connect it. It just really reflects who coach is. Who he was and who he is and how many people he touched,” said Maskill’s daughter Jayne Maskill.
“The hand on the back. That’s what it was all about,” adds the late coach’s daughter.
Mary Helen, Maskill’s daughter-in-law, especially liked how Diedrich captured the emotion of the moment with Coach’s smile and with a player’s hand on Maskill’s back while he was sitting on the players’ shoulders.
“I think it’s awesome. He’s (Diedrich) done a great job of getting really close to what coach actually looked like. I think when it’s all finished and done, the helmets and hands, just everything that is there is going to really represent what coach is,” adds Maskill’s son Billy, who recently retired following a remarkable 22-year run as Midwestern State University’s head football coach, compiling 160 wins as the program’s all-time leader in wins while leading the Mustangs to five Lone Star Conference championships and nine postseason appearances.
Carleen Jenney, a close friend of Jayne Maskill and the family, said she liked how realistic Diedrich made Coach Maskill’s face look.
Martin, who knew Maskill for 61 years, said he was very happy with the sculpture and felt the sculpture will be embraced by the public.
As some family members and friends looked at the sculpture and took in how real the figure looks, tears started to develop.
“It looks like my grandpa,” said Maskill’s grandson, Tim Fabry, who had some tears in his eyes as he looked at the sculpture of his grandfather.
Diedrich said he engineered the face and upper part of the sculpture so it is angling down so water will not pool up inside the hood.
Diedrich said he still has to perform some final touchup work to make the sculpture look more realistic. He said any seams he had in place to make the mold, will be gone.
The Kalamazoo artist said after he does his final touch up work, he will make a rubber mold. The rubber mold will have a hard shell called a jacket, which is usually plaster or fiber glass, bolted together around the sculpture. When the hard shell is removed it is bolted together and molton foundry wax is poured into the shell. The wax is poured in and out of the shell two or three times to build up about a quarter inch wall of thickness. The figure is pulled out of the mold and any mistakes created by the wax in the mold are cleaned up.
Once the sculpture goes to the foundry there are many parts of the process before the piece is completed.
Diedrich said the wax is dipped in a series of ceramic shells. He said the wax is dipped in a clay-slurry mixture and then sand is applied. The sculpture is allowed to dry a day and then the clay-slurry mixture followed by applying sand process is repeated four or five more times until there is a fit, ceramic shell around the whole sculpture.
Diedrich said the ceramic shell is then placed into a kiln, which fires it into a pot. The wax, which is melted at a much lower temperature, then all melts out through a hole, leaving a hollow pot with the shape of the wax pieces on the inside. The pot is then heated up in a different kiln.
“You put it in sand, you heat up bronze, you pour the molten bronze into that pot so that it fills up all of the space where the wax used to be. Then you take a hammer and smash off the pot and you have the sculpture inside. It’s usually going to be in five or six pieces at least, so you weld those pieces back together and grind down all of the seams so you can’t ever see where it was. And then you treat the surface with various chemicals so it doesn’t corrode. It will turn green in the acid rain eventually if you don’t do that,” explained Diedrich of the final part of the process.
Some may think Diedrich would be uneasy about the final process at the foundry when all of his hard work is literally melted away. But he said he doesn’t get too concerned because he will keep the original mold so in a worst case scenario he could go back to the mold and make a new wax figure.
“This is going to be trashed once I finish the mold. Once I make the wax, the mold is trashed. Once the ceramic shell is done the wax turns to liquid. Once you pour the bronze in, the ceramic is trashed. You have to destroy the piece like five times in a row in order to make the bronze,” said Diedrich.
It is hoped the sculpture can be installed and unveiled at a home game this fall at Maskill Field, however Diedrich said it will be out of his control once it goes to the foundry, leaving the possibility an unveiling event may have to take place later.
With Coach Maskill’s son Billy and daughter-in-law Mary Helen looking on through Facetime on the computer, from left is artist Josh Diedrich, Dale Martin, Jayne Maskill, Carleen Jenney, Coach Maskill’s grandson Tim Fabry, Kathy Towne and Dave Dickson.
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