Sculptor Happy as West Statue is Unveiled

Jamie Lester is a 1992 graduate of OHS. To see an interview with Jamie, visit his web site: Lester Sculpture

MORGANTOWN: West Virginia University erected on a wintry Wednesday morning a life-size statue of Jerry West, its greatest basketball player of all time.

The statue is situated on a huge base to the right of the Blue Gate at the WVU Coliseum. Showing West in a running stance, it is one-and-a-third times life-size.

If the sculpture were to stand straight up, it would be 8 feet tall. But because of the pose, it actually stands 6 feet, 6 inches.

It took Jamie Lester more than 4,000 hours over nine months to create what's an amazing likeness of the 1957-60 Mountaineer superstar.

Lester was born in Raleigh County and grew up in Oceana.

The 32-year-old sculptor, who now lives in Morgantown, outbid six others for the project, whose total cost was $253,130.05. Most of the expense was covered by a gift from Michael Heisley, owner of the Memphis Grizzlies.

However, WVU's 2007 student body senior class made additional contributions.

West is still president of basketball operations for that NBA club. He is expected to be here Saturday for a public ceremony at 1:45 p.m., prior to the WVU-Seton Hall game which starts at 4 p.m.

Lester, a 1997 WVU graduate, said about one-fourth of the cost went into purchase of materials.

The statue was cast in the "lost wax" method of bronze casting. Lester said it is a method that's thousands of years old.

He sculpted the Jerry West statue with a variety of handmade wooden tools, steel scraping tools, brushes and his bare hands.

Edmond Yue and Jeff Ryan assisted him in the project.

Coopermill Bronze Works of Zanesville, Ohio, was the foundry contracted to cast the sculpture. It is made of Everdur Bronze, which is composed of 95 percent copper, 4 percent silicon and 1 percent manganese.

Lester said the clay sculpture began with a welded steel armature on a reinforced wooden base. Clay was formed around the steel armature and refined to the likeness of West.

"I created a steel armature and then put clay in it and sculptured that," he explained. "I'm a sport fan. So I was really happy for the opportunity, and I gave it my best shot."

He worked in his Morgantown studio from about 100 photos of West which he obtained from WVU athletic archives and from other places.

Lester also read West's book, titled "Mr. Clutch," to learn as much as he could about the legendary Kanawha County native.

"It's a great book," he said.

"It's such an eye-opening story of his life. It gives you an insight to his character. It's written in a way that you feel you're talking to him."

Lester continued, "We tried to get a feel for how he was moving at that moment. We tried to inject as much energy into the pose as we could.

"Tried to make it like he was really moving (dribbling a basketball). Tried to make the eyes like what he may have been thinking at that time."

Lester said he tried to take from the NBA logo, which is of West, some semblance of speed and inject it into the sculpture.

"It wasn't easy," he admitted. "But it was so important to do it that way."

He is eagerly looking forward to meeting West Saturday.

"It will be a big thrill for me," said Lester, a sports fan along his wife and their three young children.

"I don't know Jerry West. But I kinda feel like that I do because I've looked at all those pictures of him and also the images for nine months," he said.

Lester admittedly is very happy with the finished product.

"We had some trials with the sculpture, trying to make it look like Jerry as much as possible," he said. "But, fortunately, all the things worked out well for us."

He has an impressive list of big-time notable works nationally. Those include New York Yankees celebrities, the World Golf Hall of Fame and the West Virginia state commemorative quarter.

"I've done life-size pieces, but this is the biggest," he said. "This will last for thousands of years."