University of Alabama - Corolla Yearbook (Tuscaloosa, AL)

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FOCUS: Frank Engle 1 found him in a dusty little room in the back of the back of the unrenovated part of Comer Hall. He reminded me of one of Santa Claus ' s elves as he bent over the form of some unknown object. His white head sparkled almost as much as his eyes as he jumped a pile of hay in the middle of the floor and introduced himself. Frank Engle has been at the University of Alabama for 26 years as a professor in the Art Department. Born in Illinois, he came to the University in 1949. He previously taught school in Iowa, worked for Lockheed in California, and owned his own factory in Indiana. When illness caused him to sell his factory, he traveled for a year and decided to come to Alabama to teach. The South is the last place I thought I ' d come, but I thought that it would be a good place to rest up for a year and move on, he said. In recalling his first impressions of Alabama, he said that he had an immediate fascination with it that has continued through- out the years. I remember that first day in 1949 when they were taking me over to Woods Hall and the first thing I saw was a opossum scamper up the staircase and disappear. When asked why he has stayed at the University so long, he said, Here, unlike other institutions, I think that the administra- tion recognizes the fact that the faculty needs freedom. They know that to produce a work, you must be doing a certain amount and a certain type of research. A softness came into his eyes as he talked about his students. I have seen many changes in the 26 years I have been here. Stu- dents have their own worlds now more than they used to. I find that school is not a part of that world and, therefore, the profes- sor cannot be. It used to be that school was a student ' s whole world. Students are searching desperately for some solutions out of this mixed up situation they are put in. They turn to many things, like -getting away, and getting back to nature. A few years ago those were the things students were trying to leave. Now they want to go back to where people my age started and find out what went wrong. Engle explained that because of the nature of the courses he teaches, he has to maintain a special relationship with his stu- dents. I think that to achieve in art, you must know yourself, and to know yourself, you must be honest. Otherwise, you wind up a collection of all the ideas of other people. An artist ' s values are r .

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then different from someone who is in business or commerce. He has to struggle with the things inside himself. The things that make him what he is. Engle is responsible for many of the decorations on the Uni- versity of Alabama campus. He is the creator of the sculpture in front of Bryant Hall and of much of the decorations in Paty Hall. He also has pieces at several southeastern universities, including Louisiana State University and Mississippi University for Women. Professor Engle has found his place and is comfortable in it. He lives in his imagination — and his hands make it reality for him. Art is a way of life, he said. It is a way of presenting your- self, and a measure of how alive you are. An example of how alive Frank Engle is came when he told about working on a piece that he was particularly interested in last spring. I stayed up three straight days and nights. Graduate students were all walking around in wonder that an old man could keep up such a pace. Know how I could do it? 1 could do it because I wanted to prove something to myself. 1 wanted to prove that 1 could maintain a state of excitement. It had a meaning for me. Introduction 21