Jack Swigert Jr. Statue

This statue of John L. "Jack" Swigert Jr. was given to the National Statuary Hall Collection by Colorado in 1997.

Swigert was born on August 30, 1931, in Denver, Colorado. He attended the University of Colorado, where he played varsity football and earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering. He served with the Air Force as a combat pilot in Korea and then became a test pilot. After earning a master of science degree in aerospace science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master of business administration degree from Hartford College, he was accepted into the NASA Apollo program.

Swigert was one of three astronauts aboard the Apollo 13 moon mission, which was launched on April 11, 1970. The third lunar landing attempt, the mission was aborted after the rupture of an oxygen tank on the spacecraft's service module. Swigert and fellow astronauts James A. Lovell Jr. and Fred W. Haise Jr. returned safely to earth on April 17 after approximately 5 days and 23 hours in space.

He later became staff director of the Committee on Science and Technology of the U.S. House of Representatives. Elected to Colorado's newly created Sixth Congressional District in 1982, he died on December 27, 1982, before taking office.

Artists

Sculptors Mark and George Lundeen, natives of Holdrege, Nebraska, operate a studio in Loveland, Colorado. Mark Lundeen (1958– ) earned a business degree from the University of Nebraska in Kearney and then studied the work of the old masters in Europe. George Lundeen (1948– ) holds art degrees from Hastings College and the University of Illinois and was a Fulbright-Hayes Scholar at the Academia de Belle Arte in Florence, Italy. Individually and together, they have created works placed at over sixty locations around the country, including airports; sports stadia; organizational and corporate headquarters; and universities, colleges, and libraries. Mark Lundeen is a member of the Allied Artists of America and the National Sculpture Society, to which he was the youngest member ever selected. George Lundeen is a member of the National Academy of Design and the National Sculpture Society. The Lundeens have received awards from many organizations, including the Allied Artists of America, the National Academy of Design, the University of Nebraska, the Nebraska Legislature, and the National Sculpture Society.

The Lundeens work individually and collaboratively on sculptures, offering one another editing suggestions. At their studio and workshop, they complete each step of bronze fabrication except the actual lost-wax casting. Working with a team of assistants, they make the wax molds, fabricate the statue from the cast pieces, and finish the metalwork and patination. The Lundeens also sculpted the statue of Amelia Earhart given by the state of Kansas to the National Statuary Hall Collection in 2022.