Charlotte Sculptor's Design Of Billy Graham Approved For Capitol

CHARLOTTE, NC — A Charlotte-based artist’s model for a sculpture of the Rev. Billy Graham that will be placed at the U.S. Capitol upon its completion has been approved by Capitol officials, which allows Chas Fagan to begin work on the next phase of the project.

The statue of the late evangelist who became known as “America’s Pastor” will represent North Carolina in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall, according to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. On Friday, the Raleigh News and Observer reported that Fagan received a letter from J. Brett Blanton, the architect of the Capitol, in late July informing the sculptor that the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library had approved the design and that Fagan could move on to the next step.

Fagan said in 2019 that he anticipates the finished product of the statue taking up to a year and that when completed, the clay structure would stand anywhere between 5-foot-9 inches and 8 feet tall. The statue will replace the structure of former Gov. Charles Aycock after North Carolina lawmakers voted in 2015 to replace the statue of the former governor with one of Graham.

The statue may be unveiled sometime in 2023, The News and Observer reported. Graham died at age 99 in 2018.

“I look forward to reviewing images of the full-scale clay model, the pedestal design with the proposed inscription, the statue’s weight and dimensions, and engineer-certified structural drawings detailing the fabrication of the pedestal and statue mounting for the next approval stage,” Blanton wrote in his letter, according to the newspaper.

Fagan told the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in an interview that said he saw Graham as an important American figure while he was growing up in Belgium. He said that to him, Graham represented what it means to embody basic goodness, he said in the interview.

“It’s such an honor to represent an iconic American figure like Billy Graham,” Fagan said in the interview. “I’m happy I can help capture and preserve the life of Billy Graham and what he stood for in this way—and to do that at the historic center of America.”

Fagan's other notable work includes a commissioned painting of Mother Teresa for her canonization in Rome, statues of President Ronald Reagan in the U.S. Capitol rotunda, a statue of astronaut Neil Armstrong at Purdue University and commissioned portraits of every U.S. President.