Walker Hancock
Sculptor
Remembered for large-scale sculptures such as Christ in Majesty (at the Washington, D.C. National Cathedral) and the Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial (at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station), this twentieth-century artist was a 1989 recipient of the National Medal of Arts.
After briefly attending Washington University in St. Louis, he studied at both the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the American Academy in Rome.
During the World War II years, he traveled to Europe as a member of the United States Army's Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program and recovered artwork that had been stolen or damaged by the Nazis.
He was married to Saima Natti Hancock for four decades. He died in Gloucester, Massachusetts, at the age of ninety-seven.
As the winner of a design competition announced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hancock became the artist in charge of crafting a military decoration known as the Air Medal.