A plaque was dedicated to the sculptor who carved the statute of the founder of Norwich University. Bruno Sarzanini (1912-1976), sculptor of the Captain Alden Partridge statue, was honored in a re-dedication ceremony on the Norwich Campus last week.

A plaque was unveiled in honor of the sculptor by his children. The original of the Class of 1955 held 54 years ago.

Richard W. Schneider, President of Norwich University gave the welcome and the welcome and the opening rmarks. He introduced Bruno Sarzanini's children, Mary Anne Cassani, COL. Andrea A. Sarzanini (Ret.), and Giorgio Sarzanini. Schneider reviewed Par- tridge's vision for Norwich University made 200 years ago.

Captain Partridge, a distinguished soldier in the Army, was an educator and founder of the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy. Captain Partridge, a former superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, founded Norwich in 1819 as the first privately controlled college in the nation to offer academic instruction combined with military training and the development of a citizen soldiery. He served as president until 1843. The institution moved to Northfield in the 1860's.

The statue was designed by Dan B. Haslam. It is a figure approximately eight and a half feet tall weighing about nine tons. Capt. Partridge is depicted wearing a military uniform with a coat draped over is shoulders. His right foot is forward and his left hand is resting on the hilt of his sword. The Barre Granite Manufacturers Association donated the statue. Bruno Sarzanini modeled and carved the piece.

Col. Andrea Sarzanini recalled that his father was a simple yet talented man. He carved more than 200 statues during his career. Frank Gaylord came to Barre, Vermont in 1951 to carve granite. He was taken under the wing of Bruno Sarzanini, where, with Bruno as his mentor, Frank demonstrated his own style and rose to be one of Barre's most talented sculptors.

Mr. Sarzanini was born in Carrara, Italy where he apprenticed as a sculptor by day and attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at night. He married Andreina "Irene" Tavarelli in Carrara on April 28, 1937. During World War I he was sent to a German Labor Camp in Poland. The guards tested his claims by asking him to carve sugar images. He was released in 1945.

In 1946 he happened to read a notice in the local post office from the Barre Granite Association that was seeking to hire five sculptors. He and four other men came to Northfield and Barre in 1948 where they worked for the Rock of Ages Corporation. His family remained in Carrara until December 24, 1951. The family made their home in Barre where his daughter, Mary Ann was born. Bruno died on February 14, 1976. Irene died November 23, 2008.