An Altoona native to pay for memorial at
Logan cemetery
By William Kibler,
bkibler@altoonamirror.com
Photo of Ground breaking for the Veterans Circle at Grandview Cemetery.
During a visit to Grandview Cemetery last December for his mother’s funeral,
Altoona native Mike Hurm noticed the poor condition of a section of the cemetery
and wanted to do something about it.
‘‘I felt compelled to make improvements,’’ he said of the work, which included
replacing the flagpole, reworking the grounds and straightening the tombstones.
Hurm also commissioned a veterans monument to be placed at the cemetery in Logan
Township, just outside Wehnwood.
California sculptor Paula Slater will create a bronze sculpture that will include
likenesses of veterans buried in that cemetery from seven U.S. wars: The
Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the
Vietnam War and the Iraqi conflict.
Design Sketch above courtesy of Sculptor Paula Slater.
‘‘I couldn’t find anything off the shelf to satisfy me,’’ Hurm said.
Slater has sculpted many important life size and monumental bronze commissions
throughout the United States and Canada. She most recently sculpted the
portraits of two Congressmen, a Senator, a WWII Air Force Pilot, the Port Huron
Mining Memorial, a Risen Christ, and many others.
She majored in fine art at California State University Fullerton and has a
master of arts degree from John F. Kennedy University.
‘‘It’s the honorable thing to do,’’ the 50-year-old California philanthropist
said when asked why he commissioned the monument — adding that he’s not looking
for name recognition from the project.
He doesn’t want to make the story of the monument about him, but he admits it is
quite a turn from his childhood days in Altoona, growing up in the Fairview
Hills housing project.
Hurm retired last year after selling a defense contracting company he founded.
‘‘I’m young to retire, but I’m feeling good about it,’’ Hurm said by phone last
week.
The philanthropic work he began with his wife, Linda, has included a truck full
of toys donated through the Salvation Army.
‘‘I remember as a boy getting my Christmases from the Salvation Army,’’ he said.
Hurm’s sale of Ocean Systems Engineering Corp. made a wealthy man out of a
brilliant one, said Bill Forsht, president of the family-held cemetery
corporation.
‘‘We’re blessed with more than we could use,’’ and that has conferred a
responsibility to share it, Hurm said.
Hurm’s father is buried in the Soldier’s Circle, while a stillborn brother is
buried in the ‘‘potter’s field’’ at Grandview, the place for people whose
families don’t have much money, Forsht said.
The Hurm Family Trust will pay the $70,000 cost of the sculpture and the $10,000
cost of installation, Forsht said.
The bronze will sit 10 feet tall atop a granite base, with a perimeter walkway
and benches.
The Altoona Council of the Navy League is collecting likenesses of veterans
proposed for the sculpture and obtaining permission from survivors to use the
likenesses on the monument, said Pete Starr, president of the council and former
Altoona police chief.
About 40 people attended a groundbreaking Nov. 17 for the monument in the
Soldiers Circle at Grandview.
Hurm was a member of the sea cadets as a kid, served in the Navy in the 1970s
and is a member of the council, which is channeling the monument funds.
The Hurm Family Trust’s philanthropy has included funding for a hospitality
house for Altoona Regional Health System, Hurm said.
Hurm hopes to dedicate the monument on Memorial Day next year.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.