The "Star of David Hour Glass" Story

Stan Lipman taken in the late 1970s.

It was an ordinary day.  Parked the car and headed into Manheim Township High School in Lancaster, PA where I do the in-house printing for the school district.  As I approached the entrance to the school I noticed a piece of heavy equipment breaking the sidewalk close to the entrance.  Asked one of the guys on the work crew what was going on and he told me they are putting a new concrete pad down to hold the sculpture that Stan Lipman made back in the '70s.  Stan was a special education teacher at the high school when I was also teaching.  He enjoyed metal sculpturing which he did in the metal shop right next to my print shop.  Often would go over to the shop and talk and watch as he poured molten aluminum onto sand that covered the concrete floor.  Made some of the neatest designs with this method.  

Sculpture as it stands today

The graduating class of 1977 had Stan do a metal sculpture that they donated to the high school as their class gift.  Stan chose to make a rather unique hour glass that was to stand outside one of the entrances to the high school.  Two large three dimensional triangles that were welded together at their points to form the hour glass.  It stood in front of the school for years until they removed it when new construction to enlarge the size of the high school began.   Had been in storage for years until now when they have decided to return it to a new spot by one of the entrances to the school.  A week or so later I was heading into the school again when I noticed Stan's work was back in place.  

Attached to the bottom of the hour glass.

Great tribute to the high school as well as Stan Lipman.  But, there is a secret to Stan's work which I would like to share with you.  Not many people, up until now, know what Stan had in mind when he did the sculpture.  If you view the sculpture from atop of it, it resembles the Star of David which in Hebrew is the Shield of David.  Stan was of the Jewish faith and he wanted his faith to be expressed in this piece of artwork.  

Best I can do to looking straight down on the sculpture.

I recently took a photo of the artwork in it's new location and then ventured up onto the roof to take a photo from the top of it.  I didn't realize how tough it was to get to the location of the sculpture on the school's roof, but when I did look over the edge of the roof at the sculpture, I was too far away from it to see it from from on top.  So, my story will have to be complete without the visual that I was hoping to share with you.  Stan would have gotten a good laugh if everyone had seen the true meaning in his hour glass sculpture.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.