Sculptor
Centurion, 1901–1950
Born 27 September 1860 in Bosanquet, Ontario, Canada
Died 4 September 1950 in Palo Alto, California
Buried Mount Pleasant Cemetery
, Seattle, Washington
Proposed by Daniel Chester French and Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Elected 2 November 1901 at age forty-one
Proposer of:
Seconder of:
Century Memorial
Alexander Phimister Proctor was elected to the Century in 1901. He died September 4, 1950.
He was a sculptor and a big game hunter, and he became exceedingly expert in both fields. As a boy, he knew and followed about the streets such frontier notables as Buffalo Bill, Jim Baker and Arizona Bill. Undoubtedly these interests led him to devote his principal efforts to sculpturing animals. Among other things, he did the “Seven Mustangs” which stands on the campus of the University of Texas, the famous Princeton Tigers, the McKinley Lions at Buffalo, and “On the War Trail” in Denver.
He used to go away on hunting trips for months together. Then he would turn up again at the Century full of conversation and news—the best company imaginable. For a long time word went around in the studios that he did the horse General Sherman rides in the Plaza. Some Centurions charged him with this one day. He said no, he didn’t do the large horse, from which the bronze was cast; he did the study on a much smaller scale from which the large model was taken.
He got around a great deal, and associated with all sorts and conditions of men, and at different periods of his long life he had different circles of intimates. Probably no one man knew him well his whole life through. He loved the out-doors, the men who lived out-doors, and the animals.
George W. Martin
1951/1952 Century Association Yearbook
