In honor of Brenau's annual alumane reunion weekend, May Day, I figured it was high time we talked about the elephant in the room.
Er, tiger.
Lucile gracefully sits at the farthest edge of campus, guarding Green Street and the Jacobs Building (where I spent four years of my life and still can be seen hanging around in the midst of the night once a week), paws delicately crossed like a lady.
I remember when Lucile was installed. She hadn't been named yet, but we were driving back from the "new" Taco Bell and I, in the passenger seat of a sorority sister's Jimmy, screamed "WHAT IS THAT."
It was a giant, bronze tiger, sitting on a bed of hay and pinestraw. Laughing hysterically, we pulled over and took pictures.
The next day we recieved an email with some more information about this mysterious tiger, who later would be named Lucile.
Donated by the Belk brothers, Lucile is the largest golden tiger statues in the world. She weighs 2,200 pounds and is seven feet, six inches tall and is named after Lucile Pearce, who was an influential
Sculptor Greg Johnson, of Cumming, cast Lucile after being commissioned for the work by the brothers, whose only stipulation is that the sculpture must be the largest in the world. Johnson and the Belks have worked together before: in fact, he's made about 20 sculptures like this for the pair. We'll talk more about Greg Johnson in a future post!
Now let's talk the first Lucile. She came to Brenau as Lucile Townsend in 1897 and married Dr. H.J. Pearce (who the tiger mascot, H.J., is named for) after her graduation in 1900 and following his first wife's death.
In 1943, when Dr. Pearce passed away, Lucile quietly run Brenau in the background, along with the board of trustees that still operates today. She was the head of the executive committee that kept the school afloat until Josiah Crudup stepped in to take over in 1945 Looking back, we've started cvalling her the first female president of Brenau.
Lucile was artistic and musically inclined, there's a rumor you can hear faint classical music coming from Pearce Auditorium, like her spirt saying hello and sharing some beauty with whoever can hear her. Supposedly, she had a little room built on the fourth floor of Pearce auditorium, above her husband's office on the thrid floor.
She was also involved in the establishment of Camp Takeda in 1920, a summer camp around the former Lake Brenau that not only encouraged enrollment but also gave the prim and proper girls a chase to let loose outside, playing sports, being on the lake and riding horses.
Ironically, Lucile passed away in an automobile accident on Academy and Green Streets, very close to where the Lucile the Tiger sits now.
You may recognize the Pearce name as its attached to that beautiful auditorium I have always loved, or you may know that Pearce changed the school's name to Brenau, a combination of "Brennan" and "Aurum" meaning "to burn gold," which is where the school's motto "As Gold Refined By Fire" comes from. If this seems like a lot of information - imagine being a freshman! We were quizzed on thios during RATT (Remember All the Traditions) week. Not to brag, but I definitely took home Smartest Ratt in 2009.
The Golden Tiger was selected as Brenau's mascot in 2000 - the turn of the century was the Chinese Year of the Tiger. Speaking of, Golden Tigers aren't just something Brenau made up - there really are yellow tabby tigers playing in the wild.
Sunday
May 5th, 2024
9:38PM
