PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The late U.S. Rep. William H. Gray III of Philadelphia will get a permanent memorial in the Amtrak station that bears his name — and it will be one of five designs that were revealed on Tuesday at a showcase next door to the station.
Have you ever walked into a building named for some historical figure you never heard of and wondered why they got that honor? That is something that Justin Gray does not want to happen at the train station named for his father.
“Four million travelers come through the station a year,” he said.
“Through this living memorial process, there is something physical that draws them in and speaks to the values that he cherished — civic engagement, education, economic empowerment, fairness — and be moved to live those values in the present day, whether that’s a year from now when the memorial’s in place, or 20 years from now.”
The designs ranged from the abstract to the extremely practical. Gray was a minister, a congressman and head of the United Negro College Fund, so artist Hank Willis Thomas tried to blend those roles in his concept.
“It’s 13-foot-tall bronze hands that are connecting as if in prayer or contemplation,” he explained.
Karyn Olivier proposed a sculpture of a pulpit with a bronze statue of Gray descending to the station. “A slightly larger than life-size Gray will greet the passerby, the commuter, the traveler,” she said.
Paul Ramirez Jonas, meanwhile, envisioned a bench not so different from existing seating.
“But the bench is the base for a kind of genealogical tree,” he described, “so as the tree goes up you see the names of the ancestors but when you look down at your feet, the roots continue down into the floor of the station.”
The Gray Memorial Foundation received 120 proposals, which it whittled down to the five finalists. Executive Director Licy Do Canto said the presentations will help determine the winner.
“It’s very important for us that the community provide the feedback on shaping the memorial on someone who served them and really has left an enduring impact on all of us,” he said.
The foundation has raised nearly $4 million for the project and expects to announce the final selection on July 31. Work is scheduled to begin in 2026 with hopes to dedicate the memorial next summer.