{"id":876964,"date":"2026-10-10T01:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T01:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/876964\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T01:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T01:56:12","slug":"umpi-unveils-sculpture-honoring-donald-and-linda-zillman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/876964\/","title":{"rendered":"UMPI unveils sculpture honoring Donald and Linda Zillman"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Among the trees and swirling fall leaves at the center of the University of Maine at Presque Isle\u2019s campus on Friday, the university\u2019s president, an artist and others unveiled a large sculpture to honor a late UMPI leader and his wife.<\/p>\n

Standing more than eight feet tall, the granite sculpture, titled \u201cEmbrace,\u201d sits in the Central Campus Park behind South Hall. <\/p>\n

The piece honors the memory of former President Donald Zillman and his wife, Linda Zillman, who became the university\u2019s largest benefactors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very, very simple, two forms, one on top of the other,\u201d said Leo-Paul Cyr, UMPI professor emeritus and the artist who created the sculpture. \u201cWhen I started this process, I thought about the Zillmans, and I knew them very well. And for me they were very simple people and so that\u2019s what I wanted to honor through the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donald Zillman served as UMPI\u2019s president from 2006 to 2012 after several decades working across the University of Maine System.<\/p>\n

He was dean of the University of Maine School of Law from 1991 to 1998, interim provost and academic vice president at the University of Maine from 1999 to 2000 and interim president of the University of Maine at Fort Kent from 2001 to 2002.<\/p>\n

His wife, Linda, was an art historian involved with UMPI\u2019s Reed Art Gallery. She helped the gallery acquire 153 original Andy Warhol photographs, one of its most prestigious works, among other items. <\/p>\n

Donald Zillman died in July 2023. Linda Zillman died in September 2025. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the most appropriate way to honor the Zillmans is through art,\u201d UMPI President Raymond Rice said. \u201cThey were dedicated to education all their lives, but they just loved all performing arts, fine arts, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linda Zillman served on the board of the Portland Ballet, several members of which made the trip north to Presque Isle Friday to put on a short performance in their honor.<\/p>\n

At UMPI, the Zillmans established a research professorship in 2013 and gave the first money to start the Zillman Family Greenhouse<\/a>\u00a0for the agricultural science program. The couple\u2019s estate gave the university $2.1 million last December, its largest-ever<\/a>\u00a0donation, along with other gifts over the last 15 years that total more than $3 million.<\/p>\n

The Zillmans\u2019 generosity extended to other sects of the UMaine system, including another $2.1 million to the Honors College at the University of Maine and nearly $3 million in separate gifts to the University of Maine Art Gallery in Bangor, which was renamed the Linda G. and Donald N. Zillman Art Museum<\/a>\u00a0in 2020 as a result. <\/p>\n

Donald Zillman, UMPI\u2019s 10th president, came to the school at a challenging time, as the UMaine system expressed no confidence against two consecutive chancellors and difficult dynamics persisted between faculty and administrators. But his demeanor brought a calm to the chaos, Rice said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not an overstatement to say, without Don Zillman, I don\u2019t know what direction this institution would have taken,\u201d Rice said. \u201cHe had a way of defusing challenging situations, but also getting to the core of things. He took everyone\u2019s concerns seriously and he helped move the institution forward at a time that\u00a0we weren\u2019t certain what our direction forward was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"UMPI President Raymond Rice speaks during Friday\u2019s sculpture unveiling. Credit: Cameron Levasseur \/ The County<\/p>\n

Art from the Zillmans\u2019 estate is on display at the Reed Art Gallery<\/a>\u00a0through Oct. 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among the trees and swirling fall leaves at the center of the University of Maine at Presque Isle\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88,1148],"class_list":["post-876964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-surprise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}