Home » Pittsburg’s Small, but Mighty Bufano Bear Story

Pittsburg’s Small, but Mighty Bufano Bear Story

By Donna Fentanes

by CC News
Pittsburg

Many of us appreciate famous works of art like Michelangelo’s David, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa or even famous local works like Rodin’s The Thinker at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. But I bet many do not realize that Contra Costa County’s little Delta City of Pittsburg, the “New York of the Pacific” way back in the day, is home to one of famed sculptor Beniamino Bufano’s pieces.

According to his Wikipedia article, Beniamino Bufano is “best known for his large-scale monuments representing peace and his modernist work often featuring smoothly rounded animals and relatively simple shapes.” Mr. Bufano was an internationally known sculptor who was based in San Francisco from the early part of the 20th century until his death in 1970. Many of his sculptures can be seen in and around San Francisco. One of his most famous pieces was the Peace Statue at SFO which was moved to Brotherhood Way around 1997.  A beautiful sculpture of St. Francis of Assisi, which he sculpted, serves as his grave marker at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, CA.

This is Pittsburg’s Bufano Bear story.

Sixty-four years ago next month on November 3, 1960, the students at Heights Elementary School in Pittsburg, along with local community members and dignitaries which included then Governor Edmund G. Brown, unveiled one of Beniamino Bufano’s sculpted bears. The story goes that on a spontaneous student field trip to the artist’s studio in San Francisco, and when the bus was pulling away after the Heights Fifth Grade Class visit, plucky ten year old Billy McKee hollered at Mr. Bufano, “Can we have a bear like that for our school?” To which, the humble sculptor replied, “Why not!”

And as the Saturday Evening Post’s article of January 21, 1961 reported, that set in motion a mighty community effort to raise the funds for the materials and the transport of the Bear from Bufano’s studio to Heights Elementary School in Pittsburg. Mr. Bufano donated his labor. The class even buried a time capsule underneath the sculpture.

Vince Ferrante from the Pittsburg Historical Society thought it would be nice to have a plaque commemorating not only the wonderful Bear that sits adjacent to the new Heights campus, but also to underscore what a community can do, even a small community like Pittsburg, California.

Bufano

Unveiling Photo: Mike Partain and Sean Vandermey.

So, on September 30, 2024, in the presence of about a dozen 1960 fifth graders and about 100 current Heights ES fifth graders, the Bufano Bear plaque was unveiled. On the plaque is the full Saturday Evening Post article. A few of the members of the 1960 fifth grade class shared their memories of the field trip and even Mike Partain, who did the honors of unveiling the Bear in 1960 (with a parachute, no less), was on hand to unveil the plaque. Today’s fifth graders were captivated by eyewitness accounts of how Heights acquired this famed sculpture.

Pittsburg continues to be a small, but mighty community doing many good works. The present day fifth graders were encouraged to continue the Pittsburg tradition of doing great things with little resources and big hearts.

Submitted By Donna Fentanes


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