Hebe owes new lease on life to McGaw’s efforts
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But if Hebe could somehow be given the gift of speech, there is one individual in particular who would undoubtedly receive her thanks, and that is James McGaw, a mechanical engineer and metallurgist who opened a metal stamping business here a decade ago.
McGaw, now 78 and suffering from lymphatic cancer, donated over 3,000 hours of his own time working to repair and restore the statue, which was donated to the city by a women’s group back in 1915 to celebrate the opening of the renovated park on court square.
McGaw says he got involved almost as a happenstance.
‘I came to town just about 10 years ago,’ McGaw said, ‘and there was a little restaurant on the outside of town, and I’d stop in there and have breakfast on Sunday morning.’
While he was having his breakfast one morning McGaw noticed a story in the Standard on the efforts by Heritage Alliance to restore Hebe.
‘The article said it was going to cost $150,000 to restore the statue,’ McGaw said. He asked a local couple at the restaurant where the statue was, and was surprised to find it was right downtown.
‘I had never noticed it,’ McGaw said. ‘But when I finished my breakfast I drove downtown and looked at it.’
McGaw said he felt from the beginning it shouldn’t cost $150,000. ‘I saw what the other people’s estimates were and basically they were going to make it new, recast it,’ McGaw said, noting he felt he could do the work, and for considerably less than the estimates.
Soon after McGaw attended a meeting of Heritage Alliance and graciously offered his services, which were quickly accepted, and the work began.
‘We were fortunate in that with my background we could use the old broken pieces and make the molds out of that,’ McGaw said.
What followed was over 3,000 hours of tedious, painstaking labor over a 2-1/2 year period.
Rachel Killebrew, a founding member of Hertiage Alliance, a group established to preserve buildings and items of significance to local history, says the community owes McGaw a debt of gratitude for his volunteer efforts to save Hebe.
‘He spent 3,125 hours working on it,’ Killebrew said. ‘He worked every night on his own time after work. He did it all by hand, because it was too fragile to sandblast to clean it off. Mr. McGaw also restored the court square fountain, so we have him to thank for that too.’
A tribute to McGaw for all his work was held at Magness Library Thursday night, but he was too ill to attend.
‘It was a tribute to honor him,’ Killebrew said, ‘for the work he did to restore the statue of Hebe and the fountain. Main Street is giving him a stone inset in front of the library listing his Hebe restoration, the fountain restoration along with the date. Heritage Alliance gave him a picture that was taken in 1965 of the statue in front of the courthouse. Then the City of McMinnville gave him a plaque with two pictures, one of the fountain and one of the statue of Hebe, with a tribute from the city.’
Killebrew says McGaw has left a legacy with his work that will take these historic items well into the next century, and the community will be eternally grateful.
‘There is no way you could ever repay him for what he did,’ Killebrew said. ‘It is so grand, just think about the hours, over 3,000 hours, and these weren’t easy hours. Everything was done by hand. I don’t think we could have done it without him.’
As for McGaw, he says he was glad to help and actually enjoyed giving a historic relic new life and beauty.
‘There’s an old saying I used to hear when I was a youngster,’ McGaw said. ‘If you don’t find something to do that’ll keep you out of saloons, you’ll just get in trouble. Really, it was something I was glad to do. I enjoy that kind of work and I needed something to do. It was a fun job.
McGaw donated his pictorial record of the restoration to the Southern Museum & Galleries and Monty Wanamaker and Chris Keathley, co-authors of Images of America: Warren County, will be featuring McGaw and his story in a new book slated to be published in 2009.
‘He did a wonderful job,’ Wanamaker said, ‘and we owe him a lot. I’m so glad they did the program in his honor.’