Chronology
1908
Born Marshall Maynard Fredericks, the youngest of four children, on January 31, to Frank Arthur Fredericks and Frances Margaret Bragg, in the Scandinavian community of Rock Island, Illinois. Paternal grandparents, Matthew Frederiksen and Anna Christensen, had emigrated there from Norway and Denmark in the 1860s.
1912
Claims to have carved his first sculpture from a bar of laundry soap at the age of four, igniting a lifelong interest in artistic expression.
1915
Family moves to Florida so Fredericks's father can pursue engineering projects.
1917
Family moves again, to Cleveland, Ohio.
As a teen, works with his father, a construction engineer, learning technical and mechanical skills.
1924
Attends John Huntington Polytechnic Institute in Cleveland, prior to enrolling for four years at the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art).
1930
Graduates from the Cleveland School of Art and is awarded the Herman Matzen Traveling Scholarship in Sculpture.
Travels to Scandinavia, meets sculptor Carl Milles, and works in his carving shop, learning to carve marble and granite. For several months, he continues his studies and travels through Europe, taking courses in Germany at the Kunstakademie, working at the Heimann Schule, and learning armature and casting techniques from sculptor Hans Schwegerle. In Paris studies at the Académie Scandinav, then travels through Italy, Spain, and North Africa, returning to Germany to complete some projects.
Returns to the United States and finds work as a weekend instructor at the Cleveland School of Art.
1931
Invited by Carl Milles to join him at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, as his assistant and as an instructor.
1932
Eliel Saarinen, director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, awards Fredericks the academy's first Art Academy Fellowship, established by George Booth.
Appointed head of the sculpture and ceramics department at Kingswood School (1932-42), head of the arts department at Cranbrook School (1932-38), and faculty, Cranbrook Academy of Art (1932-42).
1933
Continues working with Milles and gains experience creating monumental sculptures and refining the mechanics of engineering large works.
1936
Wins national award competition to design a fountain for the Levi L. Barbour Memorial, located on Belle Isle, an island park belonging to the city of Detroit.
1938
Based on his receiving honorable mention for sketch models submitted to 1939 New York World's Fair United States Government Building Competition, the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture invites and accepts his designs for post offices in River Rouge, Michigan, and Sandwich, Illinois.
1939
Baboon Fountain installed for Glass Industries Building at the New York World's Fair. It is selected by the city of New York's Department of Parks as one of six sculptures from the exposition worthy of permanent location after the close of the fair. Unfortunately, the temporary stone castings are destroyed during the war and the intended granite fountain is never reproduced.
Selected by Malcolm R. Stirton, chief designer for the architectural firm of Harley, Ellington and Day, to collaborate on the design of the Horace H. Rackham Educational Memorial Building in Detroit.
1942
Volunteers for the armed forces. Assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers in Arizona, he reacquaints himself with a volunteer driver on the base, Rosalind Bell Cooke, whom he had met earlier in Michigan.
Horace H. Rackham Memorial Educational Building is dedicated.
1943
Marries Rosalind Bell Cooke on September 9, 1943, and is transferred to the Eighth Army Air Corps.
1944
Twin sons, Christopher and Carl, born May 13. (Carl is named in honor of Fredericks's mentor, Carl Milles.)
Serves with the Intelligence Section of the Twentieth Bombing Squad in the India-Burma Theatre (India, China, the Philippines, and Okinawa).
1945
Awarded rank of lieutenant colonel prior to discharge.
Returns to Michigan and establishes a studio in Royal Oak.
Immediately upon return to civilian life is selected to design a World War II memorial for Cleveland, Ohio.
1946
Daughter Frances born June 20.
1949
Collaborates again with the architectural firm of Harley, Ellington and Day on the Administration Building (now the Literature, Science and Arts Building) at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Chairs the Fine Arts Section of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters.
Anchors a television series, "The World of Art," produced by Chrysler Motors in cooperation with the Detroit Institute of Arts, for WXYZ-TV, Channel 7, Detroit.
Daughter Rosalind born March 30.
1950
Establishes working studios in New York City and in Norway to accommodate the monumental bronze castings required to complete the Cleveland War Memorial commission and to gain access to Norwegian granite carvers. Introduces and exports Norwegian granites to the United States.
Installs carved marble Victory Eagle on façade of the Veterans Memorial Building (now the UAW-Ford National Program Center) in Detroit, another building designed by Harley, Ellington and Day, drawing the attention of the Michigan Society of Architects.
1952
Receives the coveted Fine Arts Medal from the American Institute of Architects.
Asked to create a monumental crucifix for a chapel at Indian River in northern Michigan.
1953
Daughter Suzanne born May 21.
The Ford Rotunda in Dearborn is remodeled. Fredericks casts sixteen reliefs in fiberglass polyester resin laminate for the interior, and Buckminster Fuller designs a geodesic dome for the roof. The Rotunda becomes the fifth most-visited tourist site in the country.
Works with car companies, designing hood ornaments for Chrysler Motors, General Motors Corporation, and Studebaker-Packard Corporation.
1954
Designs stainless steel and fiberglass furniture for the Holden Great Ape House at the Detroit Zoo.
Carves The Boy and Bear for Northland Shopping Center in Southfield, Michigan. Designed by Victor Gruen, Northland is one of the world's first shopping centers.
1955
Carl Milles dies.
Fredericks expands his use of fiberglass, creating bas-reliefs of the 1955 Chevrolet for ten billboards across the United States.
1956
Continuing his experimentation with various media, creates The Ford Empire, a 145-foot-long span of aluminum and brass for the Henry and Edsel Ford Auditorium in Detroit.
1957
Carves the The Lion and Mouse for Eastland Shopping Center in Harper Woods, Michigan, another early shopping center designed by Victor Gruen.
1958
Dedication of the Memorial to Norwegian Emigrants (a full-scale casting of Leaping Gazelle) in Stavanger, Norway. Fredericks donated the sculpture as a symbol of friendship between the United States and Norway and presented it to King Olav V. The work commemorates the men and women of Norwegian blood who have contributed to the building of America.
The Spirit of Detroit (commissioned in 1955) is shipped from the foundry in Oslo, Norway, and installed in front of Harley, Ellington and Day's new City-County Building (now the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center) in Detroit.
1959
Dedication of Christ on the Cross, believed to be the largest crucifix in the world, in Indian River, Michigan, August 16.
1960
Opens the "Greenhouse" and the "Stable" in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, as extensions of his Royal Oak studio.
On two different state occasions, presents small-scale models of The Spirit of Detroit to the President of Finland, Dr. Urho K. Kekkonen, and to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
1962
The Ford Rotunda is destroyed by fire.
1963
The Expanding Universe fountain (commissioned in 1956 by the General Services Administration) is installed and dedicated at the State Department Building, Washington, D.C.
1964
President Lyndon Johnson receives a small-scale model of The Spirit of Detroit.
Freedom of the Human Spirit (commissioned by the city of New York in 1960) is installed at the 1964 New York World's Fair.
The Cleveland War Memorial: Fountain of Eternal Life (which had required nineteen years to complete) is dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30.
1965
Presents Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands with a small-scale model of The Spirit of Detroit.
In cooperation with the Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, Urban Hansen, and with the patronage of Princess Benedikte of Denmark, establishes DIADEM (Disabled Americans' Denmark Meeting), an exchange program between Denmark and the United States for disabled young adults.
Beginning in December, serves as acting Danish Consul for the state of Michigan.
Princess Benedikte receives a small-scale model of The Spirit of Detroit.
1967
Co-chairs DIADEM Return, a reciprocal visit jointly sponsored by the Easter Seal Society and by the Committee for the Handicapped of the People-to-People Program, bringing an exchange group of fifty disabled young Danish adults to the United States.
Detroit Mayor Jerome P. Cavanaugh declares July 14 DIADEM Day.
1968
On May 18 is appointed by Danish King Frederik IX as Royal Danish Consul for the state of Michigan, a position he retains for thirty years.
1969
Co-Chairs DIADEM Leader, which enrolls Danish students and trainers at the Leader Dogs for the Blind School in Rochester, Michigan; sends fourteen leader dogs back to Denmark, with hopes of launching a similar program there.
1971
Detroit Mayor Roman S. Gribbs presents President Richard M. Nixon with a small-scale model of The Spirit of Detroit.
Fredericks is one of the founding members of Michigan Artrain (now Artrain USA)-the nation's only traveling art museum on a train; remains involved as a board member for many years.
1973
Second DIADEM Leader project at Leader Dogs for the Blind.
1974
Elected to the Board of Trustees of Brookgreen Gardens, Pawleys Island, South Carolina, a position he holds until his death, serving at various times as chairman of the Art Committee as well as on the Fundraising and Design and Review Committees.
1975
Appointed by Michigan Governor William G. Milliken to serve on the Special Commission on Art in State Buildings.
Invited to be the American speaker for the annual July 4 Celebration at Rebild National Park in Aalborg, Denmark.
1977
Designs the Brookgreen Gardens Membership Medal for the Brookgreen Gardens medal series-the only medallic series known to be issued by a museum.
1980
Donates small-scale casting of Freedom of the Human Spirit to serve as the annual Communications Award of the International Center for the Disabled (ICD), an organization of which he is a longtime benefactor. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the ICD.
1981
DIADEM Leader Return brings another group of blind students from Denmark to train with Leader Dogs for the Blind.
The International Center for the Disabled honors Danish Queen Benedikte at the annual ICD Dinner, recognizing her support of DIADEM.
1983
Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young presents Mayor Nishiyama of Toyota City, Japan, with a model of The Spirit of Detroit, which is intended for permanent display in Detroit's sister city.
Birmingham, Michigan, commissions a full-scale casting of Freedom of the Human Spirit in honor of the city's fiftieth anniversary. The sculpture is installed in Shain Park and dedicated in 1988.
1984
Receives the Michigan Academy Award from the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters.
1985
Birmingham City Commissioner Geoffrey Hockman presents a small-scale model of Freedom of the Human Spirit to Mayor Ikai and the city fathers of Ritto, Japan, Birmingham's sister city.
1986
Don Peterson, chairman of Ford Motor Company and a personal friend as well as staunch advocate of Fredericks, is honored with Brookgreen Gardens's first American Achievement Award (a model of Leaping Gazelle).
Fredericks is accorded the rare honor of being asked to sign one of the ceiling beams at Detroit's Scarab Club, an organization of artists founded in 1910.
Groundbreaking for the Arbury Fine Arts Center at Saginaw Valley State University in University Center, Michigan. The Fine Arts Center will eventually include the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Gallery.
1988
Appointed to the Artistic Advisory Board of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Interlochen, Michigan.
Dedication of the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Gallery (the name will later be changed to the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum) at Saginaw Valley State University, May 15.
Named chairman of the Art Committee at Brookgreen Gardens.
1989
Participates at the Cleveland Preservation Symposium IV in response to a controversy surrounding the approval of a parking garage under the Cleveland War Memorial fountain.
1992
Conservation of the Fountain of Eternal Life.
1993
The United States Ambassador to Canada, James Blanchard, invites Fredericks to participate in the Art in Embassies program, "communicating American values and cultural diversity through the display of American art at overseas posts."
1994
Presents Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer with a model of The Spirit of Detroit. Archer becomes the last of a select few, including only two other mayors, six heads of state, and five presidents to receive a small-scale model of The Spirit.
Dedication of Nordic Swan and the Ugly Duckling at the Danish Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Northland Center commissions Detroit's Pewabic Pottery to produce limited edition tiles depicting The Boy and Bear to commemorate the shopping center's fortieth anniversary.
1995
Birmingham Community Education and the Beaumont Foundation sponsor a community-wide "Photo Safari," the aim of which is to locate Fredericks's works in the community.
More than two dozen of his sculptures, including two previously uncast versions of the The Friendly Dragon, are displayed in the newly opened Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Enlarges a 1930s sketch model by Carl Milles into an eighty-six-foot-high bronze sculpture, God and the Rainbow. Travels to Sweden to dedicate its placement over the Nacka Strand, across the fjord from Millesgården.
1996
The Expanding Universe fountain undergoes a complete conservation treatment and is rededicated.
Freedom of the Human Spirit conserved and reinstalled at its permanent site as part of Flushing Meadow-Corona Park in New York.
Torso of a Dancer selected for exhibition in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
1997
At age eighty-nine, Fredericks completes the Star Dream Fountain, which is installed and dedicated at the Barbara Hallman Plaza, Royal Oak, Michigan.
Birth of the Atomic Age (originally installed in 1959) is conserved and rededicated at the National Exchange Club in Toledo, Ohio.
The Spirit of Detroit is outfitted in a Red Wings jersey in celebration of the Detroit hockey team's winning the Stanley Cup.
1998
Completes full-scale clay model of last monumental work, Lord Byron.
Attends ninetieth birthday celebration at the Birmingham Community House, attended by family and local and international friends.
Marshall Maynard Fredericks works at his Royal Oak Studio until three days before his death on April 4.
Premier performance of Catherine McMichael's choral work "The Saints and Sinners," inspired by Fredericks's work of the same name, on May 16, at Saginaw Valley State University, in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum and Fredericks's ninetieth birthday.
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