Turkey Stremmel installing Robert Brady's bird sculptures
Turkey Stremmel loves to tell the story about how nationally recognized sculptor Robert Brady found his career path.
Born and raised in Reno, he was diagnosed at 16 with rheumatic fever and spent six months in the hospital.
In order to graduate with his buddies and be part of Wooster High School’s first graduating class, Brady had a lot of catching up to do, and algebra was his nemesis.
“I found out about six weeks in that I could actually graduate from Nevada State High School without taking algebra,” Brady said. “I dropped it and took crafts class. I had no idea. I just knew it was crafts.”
He walked into class and the teacher, Thomas T. Tucker, told him to make a slab built pitcher.
“He wasn’t mean but he wasn’t any more attentive than that,” he said. “By the end of that class, I had created a cowboy-type coffee pot. I was so in love with that thing.”
He placed it high on a ledge where no one could touch it and throughout the day kept returning to the classroom to check on it.
“I cared for that thing,” he said. “It finally gets completed, and I’m totally jamming in the class. The teacher thought it turned out so good that he put it in a showcase. I’d walked passed it and was so proud.” To read more of this article by RGJ’s Geralda Miller, click here.