By Michael Howell
A beautiful steel sculpture designed and executed by Tim Campbell of Ironhaus, a local fireplace manufacturing business, now graces the entranceway to Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital. The sculpture was commissioned by the Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital Foundation as a way to pay tribute to the many foundation donors who already support the hospital’s activities and secondarily to keep the foundation’s fund raising efforts before the public and possibly attract new donors. Campbell, himself, donated all his work on the project.
MDMH Foundation member Ron Kullick said that previously the organization had a small donor wall where plaques were hung honoring donors in a not-so-visible place.
“We wanted to amply recognize our donors in a more public way for the vital role they play in the community’s health and the hospital,” said Kullick. He said Foundation members came up with the general concept and contacted Campbell.
“We told him we wanted something unique and appropriate to the valley,” said Kullick, “and Campbell took it from there.”
Campbell expressed appreciation for the creative license that came with the project. He said the result was a vision that combined the main elements of the valley’s landscape with the idea of honoring those who donated to enhancing the community’s health care.
The result is impressive, a steel landscape formed of rocks, river, fish, forest and mountains. Names of donors are emblazoned in very readable script on the rocks, the fish, the trees and the mountainside itself, each representing an ascending scale of donation amounts.
Campbell said that he hoped the sculpture captured the essence of the place. “We are so lucky to have something like this to look at every day,” said Campbell.
Kullick noted that the medical community has recognized the key role that landscape plays in the healing process.
Campbell called the whole project inspiring, “because people’s lives will be saved by these donations.
Foundation funds have been used in the past to purchase a new ambulance, equip a third operating room, purchase emergency care equipment, and fundraising is currently aimed at creating a new intensive care unit at the hospital.
Campbell grew up working in his father’s home woodstove business. His father, Maynard Gueldenhaar, was a well-known blacksmith in the valley renowned for the woodstoves he produced. But in 1985, Campbell and his family moved to Arizona hoping to pursue some other kind of work.
“We didn’t believe we would see anything like a woodstove or a fireplace in Arizona,” said Campbell. But they were wrong and he fell back into the work, eventually founding the Ironhaus fireplace manufacturing business. The business now makes parts for fireplace companies across the nation. It operates out of a 15,000 square foot shop at 133 Lewis Lane, across from Quality Supply south of Hamilton.
Campbell is rightly proud of his work for the Foundation. Each piece of the complex landscape was hand cut, textured, sanded, and clear coated. The individual pieces are attached to the basic landscape by rare earth magnets so that they may be removed or have their position changed over time.