Starr Kempf

Starr Kempf was raised on a small farm in Ohio, near the Swiss Mennonite community of Bluffton. His family, including his father and seven uncles, were blacksmiths and carpenters, from whom he learned craftsmanship and engineering at an early age. He attended the Cleveland Institute of Art on a scholarship, where he received high marks for his paintings and drawings. After graduating, he served in the United States Air Force during World War II. He married recent German immigrant Hedwig Roelen in 1942, who was a nurse at Glockner Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs. In 1948, they purchased the property of their future home in Cheyenne Canyon, where Starr designed and built a house and art studio. They had three children. Kempf had been injured several times and experienced chronic pain. He was a heavy drinker and had "temper tantrums", once shooting one of his sculptures. == Artwork ==

Starr began to work in bronze sculpture in 1955, which he sold to collectors around the United States. He designed them for their original sites, and hoped that the city or the University of Colorado Colorado Springs would turn his home into a museum after his death. However, no contract was signed before he died. == Death and legacy ==

Starr Kempf was diagnosed with heart disease in 1994. He died on April 7, 1995, at the age of 77. The cause of death was suicide. At one point, she filed a pro se lawsuit alleging that her nephew and the city council were the "agents of principal Kofi Annan" (the secretary general of the United Nations at the time). and a pendulum-based one was installed at Plaza of the Rockies in downtown Colorado Springs. The family organized an exhibition of his bronze works in 2007. ==References==