“Art Castings of Colorado general manager Tony Workman remarked of John, ‘He was a fantastic down to earth person from Wichita and one of my favorites.
Workman has taken extra care of the original molds for the Jackie Robinson statue and has warm memories of John Parsons, the artist responsible for the League 42 piece.
“It’s really, in the big scheme of things, not that big of a deal to reproduce the bronze, because we do have the original molds. If the molds would have been damaged or destroyed then it would have been a little bit tougher,” said Workman.
Residents of Wichita were concerned about whether they would ever see the Jackie Robinson statue again after it was taken a week ago and then discovered charred and disassembled.
But don’t worry, Art Castings of Colorado will start the nine-step process to reconstruct Jackie Robinson as soon as they get the order.
“If the Jackie Robinson piece was the only piece we were doing, it would take about 6-8 weeks but we have quite a few employees and stay very busy. I would say at minimum it’ll be about 6 months once we receive that order,” said Workman.
Wax, a gating mechanism, a ceramic shell, and nearly three hundred pounds of molten metal are all involved in the casting process.
“There’s a reason they are not inexpensive; it’s a very labor-intensive process that takes a lot of time and skilled individuals,” Workman said.
However, money is not an issue. More than $182,000 has been received through the GoFundMe, more than enough to purchase the new statue.
Although his influence is felt across the nation, Jackie Robinson is particularly significant to the Wichita community.
“I’ve played sports my whole life and I’ve known about Jackie Robinson my whole life, you know, we do a lot of life sized sculptures for a lot of people but once in a while you get a piece where its someone you admire, or someone you look up to and I just think its really cool,” said Workman.
When the new monument is revealed in the upcoming months, Workman says Wichitans will be overjoyed, and he guarantees that it will resemble the previous one exactly.