A sculpture first presented in the mind of the creator 25 years ago has come to life on campus northwest of the Dillard Science and Engineering Research Center. The Book, which holds deep meaning and value to several faculty and alums, is the newest sculpture to campus. 

Dr. Neal Coates, chair of the Department of Government and Criminal Justice, attended graduate school at the University of Connecticut where he saw a sculpture of a large book that inspired him to envision the new sculpture on campus to honor his late wife, Cynthia (Cannon ’87) Coates, who passed away in 2021. 

“I thought it would be really neat to make a book like that one day,” Coates said. “Three years ago, when my wife passed, I thought about making something like this.”

Coates wanted a book with hubs or raised areas on the spine. His vision featured a leather cover and a large book size in volume so that it would appear to contain a large amount of knowledge or stories. The book should appear worn and well-used, he said. Once he decided what he wanted it to look like, he started to draw his vision. At about that time, Coates was planning to marry Susan Rickard Coates, whose husband, David Rickard had passed away several years before, and the two decide to honor both of their first spouses with the sculpture.

“I wanted it to look like an antiquated book,” Coates said. “In general, those are books that are 500 to 300 years old. After I had come up with some ideas, I presented them to Dan McGregor, an art professor in the Department of Art and Design, and he came up with a few design ideas, and he painted a watercolor for me.”

The next step in this endeavor included choosing a sculptor and the material it would be made of. Neal and Susan Coates, whom Neal describes as a homemaker and future Oxford study abroad house “mom” for the spring of 2026, started by looking at sculptors in Texas, but Neal was not drawn in by their style. After no luck in choosing a sculptor, Neal reached out to Geoff Broderick, professor of art and design, who taught Neal’s daughter Martha Coates during her time at ACU. 

“Geoff suggested a company named Coldspring that is in Minnesota, and not only does Coldspring produce lots of projects of varying types, they also have various facilities and quarries in the United States,” Neal said. “One of those is in Marble Falls, where the granite came from for the state capitol building. Knowing that my wife’s favorite color was pink, I opted for Texas pink granite, and I contacted Coldspring and gave them my drawings and Dan McGregor’s paintings, and they said they could do the project.”

The sculptor was chosen in the spring of 2022. By the spring of 2023, ACU had approved the gifting of this sculpture from the couple. At this time, Neal and Susan spoke to Coldspring and created a contract. Coldspring took the watercolor and turned it into a 3D model on a computer so that every pixel could be accounted for and the vision could be fully planned before beginning.  

“The great staff at Coldspring had never made a giant book, but they have filled tens of thousands of orders for mausoleums and grave markers and road projects and very large jobs including the national memorials to Franklin Roosevelt and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington D.C.,” Neal said. “This book is going to be unique for them, one piece that was going to reflect what Susan and I wanted to say in essence about our first spouses.”

In July of 2024, the rock had been cut out from the marble springs quarry and shipped to Minnesota. The work was underway, and since July, The Book changed from a rectangular stone to what is seen today. It was completed in the first part of October. A diamond tip automated saw that was connected to the computer reading the digital copy of the sculpture worked 24 hours a day to complete most of the cutting, but some of the handwork was done by a person who is a sculptor for Coldspring. The final step involved polishing the rock.  

“Coldspring was very true to our ideas, and they also incorporated some of their touches such as the marks on the book to make it look weathered and used,” Neal said. “They were very good in incorporating Susan and my plans about the number of children and age of our spouses.”

The final product was 15 tons, which is about 30 thousand pounds, and it measured ten feet long by six and a half feet wide by three feet tall. Neal and Susan incorporated several details into their sculpture to honor their late spouses and their combined children. These details can be noted on the spine, the pages, and even in the surrounding area around the sculpture itself. 

“The spine of the book, the hubs, there are seven hubs to represent the children between us,” Susan said. “The different colors of the book, David was 50 when he passed so there are fifty white pages. At Cynthia’s passing, she was 57 so there are seven darker pages representing her age.”

The Book was delivered to Abilene in mid-October. This was about 6 weeks after the surrounding area was prepared for the new sculpture’s placement. The entryway to the old intramural fields was demolished, the sidewalk was extended, and a nine-inch deep concrete slab was poured where The Book lays to take on the weight of the sculpture. The seven expansion joints in the concrete were added at this time to also represent the seven children Neal and Susan share. 

“David was raised in Oklahoma, so ACU had acquired flagstone from that state to surround the circle,” Neal said. “Then they added the two smaller sidewalks and the landscaping of trees and small desert plants and a desert willow. We had already worked with Ron Hadfield to prepare the three plaques which describe the project.”

The entire project was funded by Neal and Susan in honor of their late spouses, Cynthia and David. From the beginning, the intention was for this gift to go to the university. Neal and Susan expressed gratitude to Corey Ruff and all of the grounds people at ACU who worked with the contractor to produce the concrete circle and everything around The Book so that it could have its home by the Dillard Science and Engineering Research Center. 

“ACU wants to add art to its campus inside and out, and with the research center going up, it only seemed appropriate that if we could find a place close to it, we would,” Neal said. “Kevin Campbell and I walked around, and we settled on this spot because we thought it would be about right for this size of a project and this size of a circle.”

The area surrounding the sculpture is large enough that a class of up to thirty or more students could come to the sculpture and talk about the subjects they’re learning. The goal of Neal and Susan is that The Book can extend to any discipline and area of study to be what is needed at that moment. 

“Something that Susan and I came to appreciate fairly early on is that some people asked if it was a big Bible,” Neal said. “It’s not, but it could be. This could easily be another antiquarian version in German, English, French or any other language. We really wanted it to be whatever a person needs, whatever kind of book that they are thinking about, or subject they are thinking about.”