Remembering Our Friend Rowland Cheney (1943 – 2015)

STATUE AT ROUNDABOUT3 (12-06-13)  Rowland Cheney runs electrical wiring through his ÒHarvest of ProgressÓ statue before it is raised over a platform at the center of the Sixth Street-Central Avenue roundabout late Dec. 5.  Glenn Moore/Tracy Press

Rowland Cheney (Clements, CA) was a prolific member of our creative community. He and his fiance, Mary Doucette of Lodi, were among the nine people lost in a plane crash near Ketchikan, Alaska in June of 2015.

Mr. Cheney was a celebrated Emeritus Professor of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture at San Joaquin Delta College, professional artist and an important member of the Kiger Mustang community.  The Tracy community worked with Rowland for three years to create the largest work of his career, the monumental 20′ landmark sculpture Harvest of Progress, at Central Avenue and 6th Street in downtown.

The photo (courtesy of the Tracy Press/Glenn Moore) to the left shows the artist hard at work on the cold night of December 5th, 2013, when Harvest of Progress was installed.