Last Friday afternoon sculptor Anny Coury visited Rice to celebrate the 50th birthday of her owl, who resides near the front door of Allen Center. If you’ve ever been in there you know the one I mean–he’s hard to miss. Here’s a link to the Rice News story about the visit. And here is the remarkable woman who created the statue–check out her necklace:

It didn’t take long to turn up a news story from around the time of the installation, which caused a bit of a stir:

That owl has seen a lot of interesting things over the years. Here he is in a high-level meeting with George and Alice Brown and Oveta Culp Hobby in 1967:

This one was taken during the student occupation of Allen Center in 1970 :

There’s quite bit of action in this spot, lots of comings and goings, but even when it’s quiet he has a view of past Rice Board chairmen to give him something to think about:

Bonus: