Traci Obata (Undergraduate Admissions) shares her photos of the two iconic campus sculptures by the late Clement Renzi.

“The Three Rs” (above) was installed in 1998 near the east entrance to Fresno State’s Kremen School of Education and Human Development as part of the Teachers Honor Plaza. The statue is named for the traditional foundations in reading, writing and arithmetic, which are long treasured in education from before the days of the small country schoolroom.

“The Three Graces” (below) is a bronze piece outside an entrance to the Music Building’s Concert Hall. In Greek mythology, the Three Graces were goddesses of beauty, charm, and goodness. Also known as the Charities, they were said to be patrons of poetry, music and dance, a sentiment captured aptly in the Renzi statue. Cast in 1972 in Verona, Italy, the sculpture was donated to the university in 1995 by real estate executive Helen Smades, a longtime supporter of Fresno State.

The Three Graces

Mr. Renzi’s work is in many public places around the community, including the Fulton Mall and Courthouse Park in downtown Fresno; he created the statue of Jesus in front of St. Agnes Hospital. His work is also featured at the University of Virginia, Notre Dame University and Penn Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

His wife, Dorothy, is an emerita professor of music at Fresno State and a second cousin of Kathleen Molina (University Advising Center), who has always considered Dorothy and Clem to be like an aunt and uncle.