The professor who sculpted the campus statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and James Madison will retire after this semester.

Anthony Frudakis, associate professor of art, began teaching at Hillsdale College in 1991

“I’m looking forward to getting back into doing a lot more reading,” Frudakis said.

He plans to spend his retirement enjoying a quiet life at his home near Hillsdale, Frudakis said. He hopes to continue sculpting. 

“Maybe I’ll drop back into the college and audit a class of my colleagues at the school,” Frudakis said.

Frudakis grew up in southern New Jersey. 

“I’d grown up as kind of a beach bum; surfing, swimming, and playing beach volleyball,” he said.

Both of Frudakis’s parents were artists. Because of this, he said, his decision to become an artist didn’t come as a surprise to people who knew his family background.

“My father was a sculptor, and my mom was a painter, and they had actually met at art school,” Frudakis said.

Frudakis didn’t originally plan to pursue art professionally, he said, in part because his parents discouraged him. 

“My mom, in particular, had discouraged me from wanting to get into the arts,” he said. “She felt it was too difficult of a path financially.” 

Frudakis didn’t receive formal training in the arts until he attended Duke University, where he took his first sculpting class. 

“Everything I did was terrible,” Frudakis said. “I remember that. It was just the feeling of the clay in my hands, it just felt so natural.”

Junior Caleb Ostella, a former student of Frudakis’s, praised Frudakis’s skill in sculpting. 

“He carried a wizardly air about him, especially when he demonstrated for us, since whatever clay he touched seemed to come alive,” Ostella said.

Frudakis’s father was supportive of him after he chose to begin sculpting, but also challenged him to take initiative. 

“My father said, ‘You can come and study with me, but the ball is in your court,’” Frudakis said.

“In my brief stint at Duke, I learned and acquired the skills of how to be a really good student,” Frudakis said. “I then applied that same sort of process and rigor to learning how to be a good sculptor.”

Frudakis also sculpted “Madonna” for St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in downtown Hillsdale.

Senior Myah Lindauer shared her appreciation for Frudakis’ diverse range of interests, especially in literature.

“He has a love for poetry and ancient philosophy that is integrated into his teaching,” Lindauer said. “He has a real gift for bringing wonder at and reverence for the beauty of the world into his teaching of art.”

Lindauer said that in class Frudakis was energetic, funny, and passionate about his work. 

“He seemed to have a very genuine affection and appreciation for his students,” Lindauer said.

Lindauer remembered a lesson Frudakis taught her about appreciating others’ individuality.

“He warned me that every sculptor has the unconscious tendency to make every sculpture a self-portrait,” she said. “To render the model accurately, you have to consciously push yourself to recognize what is different from yourself.” 

Lindauer said that this principle helped her in sculpting, but also in her broader approach to the rest of life and relationships.

“We have to be careful, all of us, that we don’t let our beliefs slip into fundamentalism or fanaticism, where we think, ‘It’s my way or the highway. I have all the answers,’” Frudakis said.