Peace Garden ceremony, Ford Grove dedication part of Earth Day April 22

Henry Madden Library Peace Garden A ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday, April 22, will mark the official reopening of the renovated Peace Garden at California State University, Fresno and will be part of the campus observance of Earth Day.

Dr. Sudarshan Kapoor, founder of the Peace Garden at Fresno State 19 years ago, will participate in the event at 11:45 a.m. at the Free Speech Area speakers platform on the east end of the garden.

The memory of then-College of Social Work Dean Richard Ford, who died in 1997, will be honored as part of the Peace Garden ribbon cutting ceremony April 22.

The ribbon cutting will be followed by the dedication of the Dean Richard D. Ford Memorial Grove at the west end of the Peace Garden, which is just north of the new Henry Madden Library.

Kapoor, a professor emeritus of social work education, will join university President John D. Welty, Associated Students Inc. President Graham Wahlberg, Women’s Studies professor Janet Slagter and Nancy Ford, widow of the late Dean Ford for the ceremony.

Dr. Luz Gonzalez, dean of the College of Social Sciences, and Dr. James Walton, chair of the English Department, also will participate.

The university’s Earth Day celebration will be from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Peace Garden.The celebration includes a teach-in on three key environmental challenges – water, air and transportation – and a sustainability fair offering information, demonstrations and volunteer opportunities.

Kapoor, Gonzalez, Slagter and Walton will be available at the Gandhi, Chávez, Addams and King Peace Garden monuments, to talk about those tributes.

The events, which are free and open to the public, tie the concept of caring for the planet and peace together, said President Welty.

“The Peace Garden is a place to draw inspiration, energy and stimulation for activism, and for personal and social change based on the philosophy of nonviolence,” Welty said. “Encouraging our community to be part of a very valuable social shift in the way we care for our planet is likened to those individuals honored throughout the Peace Garden who also committed their lives to social change.”

The Peace Garden was reopened in February after a landscaping makeover visually to tie the garden to the design of the new north wing Madden Library.

The concept of the Peace Garden at Fresno State was born when a memorial for Mahatma Gandhi, prophet of nonviolence and father of the human rights movement in 20th century India, was dedicated Oct. 2, 1990.

The memorial was the result of combined efforts of students, faculty, staff and administration at Fresno State, spearheaded by Kapoor, then a professor in the Department of Social Work Department. He retired in 2008 after 39 years of teaching at the university. Various community groups, including members of the Indian community from the Valley, provided financial assistance.

The garden now is home to sculptures of others who brought peace and hope to the world: United Farm Workers union founder César E. Chávez (1996), civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (1999) and peace activist and social reformer Jane Addams (2006). For the King monument dedication, his daughter, the late Yolanda King, delivered the keynote address and helped unveil the statue. At the most recent annual garlanding of the Chávez statue in March, his son Paul delivered the keynote.

Two Canary Island pines in the Peace Garden are dedicated to the memories of two alumni killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on Washington, D.C., and New York – Todd Beamer and Navy Lt. Cmdr.Vincent Tolbert. When the Columbia space shuttle exploded in 2003, killing all aboard, a memorial was held in the Peace Garden for Air Force Col. Rick Husband, a Fresno State alumnus, who was the mission commander.

The relandscaped Peace Garden features spacious, handicapped-accessible walkways, grass-covered berms and other greenery that encourage people to spend more time with the familiar statues of major proponents of peace and the 911 memorial.

A Native Plant Garden has been established adjacent to the Peace Garden that accents native plantings and materials used for basket weaving by regional Native Americans. It was inspired by the basket-weaving designs incorporated into the library, especially in its Table Mountain Rancheria Tower. Table Mountain Rancheria’s $10 million gift to the university enhanced many aspects of the new library.

The Peace Garden and the library’s landscaping accent native plants, trees and grasses, many of which are used to weave baskets. Locally quarried, hand-cut-granite benches inscribed with the plant names etched in native languages and English are part Native Plant Garden.

The Peace Garden also provides the best view of a Mediamesh® installation mounted on the interior of the library’s large glass wall. On the Mediamesh® “screen” is a video of basketry artist Lois Connor (Mono, Chukchansi) that was filmed over 12 months as she wove a basket. It is the lengthiest performance art film ever made.

A formal dedication of the Ford Memorial Grove by the College of Health and Human Services commemorates Ford’s service.

Ford served as the first dean of the then-School of Social Work from 1972 to 1994. He also was Fresno State’s first African-American dean. Through his grant and contracting activities, Dean Ford brought more than $2 million dollars to the university, enabling him to improve the cultural diversity of students in health and social work.

It was under his deanship that the Peace Garden was established. Dean Ford died July 5, 1997.

Located in the northwest corner of the west end of the garden, near the South Gym, the grove is composed of a ring of Chinese pistachio trees that will shade a circular pathway and seating area.

View additional photos of the Peace Garden