Bridgewater State University Renames Institute After Martin Richard
BRIDGEWATER (CBS) – Bridgewater State University is honoring Martin Richard, the youngest victim of the Boston Marathon bombings. The university is where the young boy's parents met.
In the days after the attack, a picture of Martin holding a sign that read "No more hurting people" became an iconic counterpoint to the attack.
A statue of Martin holding the sign will now stand in the middle of the Bridgewater State campus.
"When I saw the picture on the Internet of Martin holding the sign, it was such an ironic and tragic feeling, so impactful that I felt the need of making this into something that would be permanent," said sculptor Victoria Guerina.
The campus is where Bill and Denise Richard met, and where now, the Institute for Social Justice will be renamed the Martin Richard Institute.
"It is a sense that this young boy's legacy, although he was only eight years old, will live on," said BSU President Dana Mohler-Faria.
His is a legacy of innocence and compassion, and will now be a permanent part of Bridgewater State University.
"If it helps even one Bridgewater student pause and reflect on their responsibility to make good choices," Bill Richard said, "then surely the meaning of our son's life lives on."
