INDIANAPOLIS – Richard Lugar is now commemorated in bronze.
The former senator and Indianapolis mayor died in 2019, leaving behind a legacy of bipartisanship and civil service. Lugar represented Indiana in the Senate for more than 30 years. Before that, he spent two terms as mayor of Indianapolis. He is considered one of Indiana’s most influential political figures.
Hundreds gathered at Bicentennial Unity Plaza Tuesday morning for the unveiling of a larger-than-life statue of the beloved Indiana political figure.
The crowd included some of Lugar’s former staffers and constituents. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered keynote remarks.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said Lugar’s vision for Unigov created what he called the “beginning of modern Indianapolis.”
“He made us one of the biggest cities in the nation,” Hogsett said. “He set the groundwork for a large-scale revival of our community. And he truly put Indianapolis on the map like it had never been before.”
He honored Lugar’s sense of dignity and “unwavering goodwill toward all.”
Gov. Eric Holcomb, out of the country on an economic development mission, delivered a recorded message. He called it a “profound honor” to speak during the event.
“Simply stated, Richard Lugar was a remarkable man whose legacy has left an indelible, eternal mark on our great state and our great nation,” Holcomb said.
Holcomb said Lugar’s commitment to leadership and mentorship were more than “abstract ideals.” He described Lugar as a brilliant strategist whose life was defined by “uninterrupted” leadership and service to others.
Rice said she was “grateful” for the opportunity to talk about the late senator, calling him an “extraordinary man” who was like no other. She first heard of him as a graduate student at Notre Dame, when Lugar was mayor of Indianapolis.
“He put humility and servant leadership well above ego,” Rice said. “This humble man, however, was also an innovator. A creator. A strategist. A problem-solver.”
She pointed to the Nunn-Lugar Act, bipartisan legislation that Lugar, a Republican, worked on with Sen. Sam Nunn, a Democrat, to create a framework for dismantling weapons of mass destruction from former Soviet states as the Soviet Union fell, as one of his lasting legacies.
People in all sectors of the government respected Lugar, she said, and trusted him.
“He was, of course, trusted across the aisle,” Rice said. “He had great respect across the aisle.”
She also encountered Lugar during her confirmation hearings in 2005 and said Lugar, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, displayed a great deal of patience and helped the hearings proceed smoothly.
He was one of the “national security senators,” able to answer a question on virtually any topic in the national security sphere.
“We had a bipartisan center to our foreign policy that really did believe that politics stopped at the water’s edge,” Rice said. “That when you were representing the United States of America, you were not representing the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, you were representing your country.”
The statue depicts Lugar from his third term in the U.S. Senate.
It will be surrounded by five bronze tablets summarizing his public service, with mentions of his roles as a Rhodes scholar, naval officer, school board member, mayor and senator.
A set of bronze plaques will feature 16 of Lugar’s famous quotes.
Bicentennial Unity Plaza served only as the location for the unveiling. The statue and memorial will go on Lugar Plaza.