Bob Cassilly

{{Short description|American sculptor, entrepreneur, and creative director (1949–2011)}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Robert (Bob) Cassilly | honorific_suffix = | image = File:Bob Cassilly in 2008.jpg | landscape =  | alt =  | caption = Bob Cassilly working on a dragon sculpture at Trailnet RiverView Park in St. Louis in 2008. | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pronunciation = | birth_name =  | birth_date ={{Birth date|1949|11|09}} | birth_place = Webster Groves, Missouri, U.S. | baptised =  | disappeared_date =  | disappeared_place = | disappeared_status = | death_date = {{Death date and age|2011|09|26|1949|11|09}} | death_place = St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. | death_cause = Vehicular accident (disputed) | body_discovered = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | burial_place =  | burial_coordinates =  | monuments = | nationality = | other_names = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = Fontbonne University | occupation = Sculptor, Entrepreneur, and Creative director | years_active = | era = | employer = | organization = | agent =  | known_for = Founder, City Museum | notable_works =  | style = | height =  | television = | title =  | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | movement = | opponents = | boards = | criminal_charge =  | criminal_penalty = | criminal_status = | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | parents =  | mother =  | father =  | relatives = | family = | callsign = | awards = | website =  | module = | module2 = | module3 = | module4 = | module5 = | module6 = | signature = | signature_size = | signature_alt = | footnotes = }}

'''Robert James Cassilly Jr.''' (November 9, 1949 – September 26, 2011) was an American sculptor, entrepreneur, and creative director based in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1997, Cassilly founded the idiosyncratic City Museum, which draws over 700,000 visitors a year<ref name="wsj">{{cite news | url=https://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304159304575183463721620890 | title=This Museum Exposes Kids to Thrills, Chills and Trial Lawyers | date=May 1, 2010 | agency=Wall Street Journal | access-date=October 9, 2013 | author=Dougherty, Connor | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150611114932/http://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304159304575183463721620890 | archive-date=2015-06-11 | url-status=dead }}</ref> and is one of the city's leading tourist attractions.<ref name=nytimes>{{cite news |first=Douglas |last=Martin |title=Bob Cassilly, Playscape Creator Fueled by Whimsy, Dies at 61 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/arts/design/bob-cassilly-playscape-creator-fueled-by-whimsy-dies-at-61.html |work=The New York Times |date=2011-09-29 |access-date=2011-10-23}}</ref><ref name=stpd>{{cite news |first=Diane|last=Toroian Keaggy |title=Cassilly's inner child was never far from the surface|url=http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_f14f4f84-342e-514b-bb71-e37349e2e51f.html |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |date=2011-09-27 |access-date=2011-10-23}}</ref>

==Early life and education==

Cassilly was born in Webster Groves, Missouri, to a homemaker and a building contractor.<ref name=nytimes/> He began skipping school by age 14 to work as an apprentice for a local sculptor, Rudolph Torrini.<ref name=nytimes/> Cassilly graduated from Vianney High School, then earned a bachelor's degree in art from Fontbonne University in St. Louis.<ref name=nytimes/>

==Career== While at Fontbonne University, Cassilly met and married his first wife, painter and printmaker Cecelia Davidson. In May 1972, the couple honeymooned in Rome. They were visiting St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City when Laszlo Toth attacked Michelangelo's The ''Pietà''. Cassilly was the first to act and subdued Toth.<ref name="stpr">{{cite news|url=http://www.stlpublicradio.org/programs/commentaries/commentary.php?cid=1310|title=Remembering Bob Cassilly|last=Schlafly|first=Tom|date=2011-09-29|work=St. Louis Public Radio|access-date=2011-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111106095407/http://www.stlpublicradio.org/programs/commentaries/commentary.php?cid=1310|archive-date=2011-11-06|url-status=dead}}</ref>

While living in St. Louis, Cassilly and Davidson restored over 36 dilapidated Victorian buildings. These restorations led to the construction of six in-fill townhouses, for which he designed the architectural flourishes.<ref name="nytimes" /> The Manhattan Townhouses, located at 4343 Laclede (1984) and 11-23 North Boyle (1985) in the City's Central West End, feature terracotta adorned with turtles and griffins.<ref>"Townhouse's Detailing Draws Attention", ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', April 1, 1984.</ref> He also designed a 12-foot-tall cast stone border fence for Cordage-Nivek's adaptive reuse of the former Dorris Motor Car building (4100 Laclede, 1985).<ref>"Former Dorris Car Plant Is House of the Month", ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', September 7, 1986.</ref> The townhouse project led Cassilly to start making sculptures professionally.<ref name="nytimes" /> He soon became known for his public pieces that depict animals such as turtles and hippos.<ref name="nytimes" /> The couple also built and ran a restaurant in Lafayette Square.

Eventually, they sold the restaurant, which allowed them to move to Hawaii, where Cassilly carved wooden figures.<ref name="nytimes" />

Cassilly reportedly grew tired of Hawaii and returned to his native St. Louis. There, he met sculptor Gail Soliwoda, whose works include the limestone monument at the Myron and Sonya Glassberg Family Conservation Area. Cassilly divorced Davidson and married Soliwoda.

Cassilly and Soliwoda became business partners.<ref name="nytimes" /> In 1993, they bought a {{convert|250000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} complex, which included the International Shoe Building, offices and a 10-story warehouse, for 69 cents per square foot.<ref name="nytimes" /> They renovated the site and opened it in 1997 as the City Museum, helping to spark a renovation boom in downtown St. Louis.<ref name="nyt" /> The museum includes a shoelace factory, a fire truck, two airplanes, and a Ferris wheel on the roof.<ref name="nytimes" /> The Project for Public Spaces listed the museum among the "Great Public Spaces in the World" in 2005.<ref name="nytimes" /><ref name="pps">{{Cite web |url=http://www.pps.org/great_public_spaces/one?public_place_id=860 |title=PPS's The City Museum |access-date=2007-12-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814043046/http://www.pps.org/great_public_spaces/one?public_place_id=860 |archive-date=2007-08-14 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2002, financial obligations forced Cassilly to begin charging visitors a fee to park at the museum. Cassilly hung a sign in the museum's parking lot reading, "Greedy Bob’s Parking Lot."<ref name="nytimes" />

Cassilly's other works include hippopotamus statues installed at Hippo Playground in Manhattan's Riverside Park in 1993.<ref name=nytimes/> In 1997, Cassilly also contributed hippo sculptures to Central Park's Safari Playground near W. 91 Street.<ref name=nytimes/><ref name=stpd/><ref name=cpc>{{cite news |title=Safari Playground |url=http://www.centralparknyc.org/visit/things-to-see/reservoir/safari-playground.html |work=Central Park Conservancy |access-date=2011-10-23 |archive-date=2011-11-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103061554/http://www.centralparknyc.org/visit/things-to-see/reservoir/safari-playground.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> He designed two turtles for Turtle Park in St. Louis.<ref name="nyt">{{cite journal | last=Summers-Sparks| first=Matthew| title=One Part Cement, Two Parts Whimsy, One Odd Park | journal=New York Times| pages=Art & Design | date=August 25, 2007 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/25/arts/design/25ceme.html?fta=y}}</ref> A giant concrete butterfly, called the Mysterious Monarch, was unveiled in Faust Park outside the Butterfly House, Missouri Botanical Garden in 1997 in Chesterfield, Missouri.<ref name=stpd/> Cassilly's giraffe statue, which stands at the entrance to the Dallas Zoo, is the tallest sculpture in Texas at 67½ feet tall.<ref name=nytimes/><ref name=dmn>{{cite news |title=Bob Cassilly's sculptures included Dallas Zoo giraffe|url=http://www.dallasnews.com/obituary-headlines/20111010-bob-cassillys-sculptures-included-dallas-zoo-giraffe.ece |work=Dallas Morning News |date=2011-10-10 |access-date=2011-10-23}}</ref> His works for the St. Louis Zoo include the Sea Lion Fountains and a 45-foot squid statue.<ref name=nytimes/>

In 2000, Cassilly began work on Cementland, a repurposing of a former cement factory on a {{convert|54|acre|m2|adj=on}} site in north St. Louis.<ref name=nytimes/><ref name="nyt"/>

In 2002, Cassilly and Soliwoda divorced.<ref name="nytimes" />

===Commissioned sculptures=== * 1987–1989 dinosaur for Planet Hollywood West-end in Dallas. "Big-Tex Rex" now resides in Amarillo, Texas, at the Big Texan Steak Ranch * 1987: Marlin Perkins bust at the St. Louis Zoo<ref name=stpd/> * 1991: Six lighted entry markers at the St. Louis Galleria<ref name=stpd/> * 1993: Hippo playground sculptures in Manhattan's Riverside Park<ref name=stpd/> * 1996: Turtle Park sculptures in St. Louis' Forest Park<ref name=stpd/> * 1997: Hippopotamus Park statues at Central Park's Safari Playground in Manhattan<ref name=stpd/> * 1997: Giraffe statue at the Dallas Zoo * 1998: ''Mysterious Monarch'' [http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/Portals/0/Butterfly%20House/images/vtour_monarch.jpg] and ''Lopatapillar'' [http://img.groundspeak.com/waymarking/6f387d82-6f7b-4dd2-90c5-7b911f83a3fe.jpg] at Faust Park in Chesterfield, Missouri<ref name=stpd/> * 1999: Sea Lion Fountains at the St. Louis Zoo<ref name=stpd/> * Dinosaur at Dallas Planet Hollywood * Ruins at Roman Rapids ride, Busch Gardens Virginia * Apple chairs, Webster Groves, Missouri * 1999: Musical Lion Benches, University City, Missouri

==Death== On September 26, 2011, Cassilly died at Cementland. A police investigation found that he died of injuries after the bulldozer he was driving flipped down a hill.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_8eb51012-e851-11e0-af8b-0019bb30f31a.html|title=City Museum founder killed in bulldozer accident|date=September 26, 2011|work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|publisher=STLToday.com|access-date=September 26, 2011}}</ref><ref name=stpd2>{{cite news |first=Joe|last=Currier |title=Cassilly found dead at site he worked on for years|url=http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_25d012f6-5521-55fb-a8a7-30713288853d.html |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |date=2011-09-27 |access-date=2011-10-23}}</ref> Some members of Cassilly's family contested the results of the investigation and hired an independent doctor, Arthur H. Combs, MD (who at the time held a faculty appointment at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis) to review the evidence. He concluded that Cassilly was beaten to death, but the St. Louis medical examiner dismissed his evidence and stood by the ruling of accidental death.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://fox2now.com/news/city-museum-founder-bob-cassillys-death-was-no-accident-doctor-claims/|title=City Museum founder Bob Cassilly's death was no accident, doctor claims|date=2016-10-11|website=FOX2now.com|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-10-11 |title=Bob Cassilly Was Beaten to Death, Medical Expert Concludes - St. Louis Riverfront Times |url=https://rftimes.com/bob-cassilly-was-beaten-to-death-medical-expert-concludes/ |access-date=2025-07-11 |language=en-US}}</ref>

Cassilly was survived by his third wife, Melissa Giovanna Cassilly, and their two children, Dylan and Robert III; and two children from his second marriage, Daisy and Max.<ref name=nytimes/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassilly, Bob}} Category:1949 births Category:2011 deaths Category:Sculptors from Missouri Category:Museum founders Category:Fontbonne University alumni Category:People from Webster Groves, Missouri Category:Accidental deaths in Missouri Category:Saint Louis Zoo people Category:20th-century American philanthropists Category:Death conspiracy theories