Page 29 - September Issue

-
Angelo commissioned a simple objective for the FOP Horse: It had to present the history of the organization and show how incredibly important it is to the future members and administrators; it had to present the lifeline of the Lodge. The art had to imitate and pay tribute.
Bucks knew he had to nail it. This couldn’t just be cool. The Lodge Horse needed the wow. Angelo knew to put a face to the timeline by including the faces of Joseph LeFevour, the first Lodge 7 President, Past President John Dineen, who secured the first collective bargain- ing agreement for the union, and Past President Bill Nolan, who engi- neered the purchase of the former Wieboldt’s headquarters where the Lodge is now located on Washington Street. Adding a portrait of Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne, who realized the fairness of allowing Chicago cops to bargain for fair compensation following years of Richard J. Daley beating down his police force, spawned the lifeline.
To bring the history to life, Bucks went to the Maxwell Street police station where Lodge 7 was founded and recreated the front entrance next to the faces and the Lodge 7 charter flanking the rear of the horse. Angelo suggested completing the lifeline by including the FOP logo with an underline of 1915-2015 to show the 100 years of the largest national police organization in the U.S.
The genius of Bucks the artist and Bucks the cop seemed to meet on the other side of horse. He started here by meeting Angelo’s request to present the FOP history and included portraits of its national founding fathers, Pittsburgh officers Delbert Nagle and Martin Toole.
“Their photos were from 100 years ago, so the only portraits I had were black and white,” Bucks offered. “After painting those two guys, I loved how the black and white looked. I didn’t even try to introduce color.”
An image of a 1915 horse-drawn Chicago police wagon finished off the history lesson. As for the wow, well, bringing to life the story of the fallen officer the Lodge 7 Horse honored personalizes this piece, not just for Angelo, but for every member who knows what comes with the job.
The portrait atop the Mount Rushmore-esque depiction of the past presidents and Jane Byrne is of Larry Vincent. Police Officer Larry J. Vincent was killed and a fellow officer wounded in a gun battle with two burglary suspects on Jan. 14, 1983. He was 26, three years on the job and left behind a pregnant wife and two young sons, Jay and Anthony. At the time of Officer Vincent's murder, President Angelo's wife was pregnant with their first child. As with every recruit class at the Academy, close-knit ties and friendships are forged, and Group 80-1A was no different. Being the son of s Chicago police Offi- cer, Larry Vincent quickly became close with the son of another Chicago police officer. His close friend was Dean Angelo, and as cir- cles always seem to complete themselves, both wound up having sons of their own, Anthony Vincent and Dean Angelo Jr. followed their father's footsteps and join the ranks of the Chicago Police Department.
“We had not seen any pictures of the horse since right when Peter started it,” Angelo related. “The delivery guys who brought it in had delivered every horse, and they told me this was their favorite. When I saw it, I was floored. I was like, oh my God. Look at John. Look at Bill. Look at Larry. I was so excited to have been part of getting that for this building and the membership.”
The Lodge 7 Horse of Honor was unveiled at the Christmas Party last year. Nolan and Dineen had come along with the Vincent family, but they did not know about the gift horse.
“Everyone was quite taken by it,” Angelo observed. “And we all realized putting it in the foyer was the perfect place because it can be seen by everybody that walks into the building.”
Bucks work, however, is not done here. He will be adding a legend to provide details of the images included on the horse. When that part of the exhibit is added, the reverence will truly ooze out of the Lodge 7 foyer. And Members will enter and truly know they are walk- ing into a place of honor.
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ SEPTEMBER 2015 29
r