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Approximately 50 SMU students, faculty and staff members attended the dedication of two sculptures in memory of SMU alumnus Francisco Villigrán Molina yesterday on the second floor of the Laura Lee Blanton administration building.

“We will remember his indomitable spirit and his joy of life,” Michael Clarke, director of international studies at SMU, said at the opening of the presentation.

Molina was an international student from Guatemala and a management science and economics major.

He graduated last year and was accepted into the Master’s Operations Management program. He died on Jan. 16, 2004 after a long battle with cancer, which left him virtually blind.

Geoffrey Orsak, dean of the School of Engineering, presented the two sculptures “E Pluribus Unum” and “Circles of Humanity” made by board of trustees member, doctor of oncology and 1942 SMU alumnus Dr. John DeVore.

“I feel privileged as one who could give some sculptures to honor Francisco,” DeVore told the crowd.

Molina’s parents were also present at the dedication.

“We learned to move through suffering rather than avoid it,” Olga Lucrecia Molina Castillo said as she spoke of her son’s bout with cancer.

She said he once told her, “This cancer experience is just an interruption in [his] life because God had something greater.” According to Castillo, the sculptures represented what her son stood for.

“Francisco didn’t have an easy life,” his father, Ambassador José Francisco Villagrán de Leon, said. He told how Molina wanted to go to a “good university, a real university.” He chose SMU.

“I admire his integrity, courage, kind heart and his faith,” his father said.

School of Engineering Senator Rafael Alvarez presented a resolution on behalf of the Student Senate for a testing center for students with disabilities. He emphasized that many policies are difficult for everyone in Senate to agree on, but the resolution received a unanimous vote.

“We honor Francisco’s life, spirit and legacy at SMU,” Alvarez said.

Rie Watts, business line manager for the master’s executive program in the School of Engineering, was a close friend of Molina’s.

She told of a time when she had a brochure in her office about a 3 1/2 year project that many had overlooked in the past.

Molina came in one day and looked at the brochure.

“With his impaired vision, he looked at the brochure and said, ‘Wow, you’ve outdone Cox now!’” Watts explained.

She reiterated the praise that many others had of Molina’s intelligence and faith.

Through the radiation, chemotherapy and experimental medications, she said Molina would return to his studies as if nothing happened.

“I wish everyone could’ve met him,” she said.

Mary Alys Lillard was Molina’s academic advisor for the school of engineering. “The thing I remember most is he always had a smile on his face,” she said.

The remembrance is far from over. Watts said a memorial concert is planned for 2005 in Guatemala in Molina’s honor.

She said they hope to raise enough money to send another Guatemalan student to SMU. Ultimately, they hope to endow a chair for a professor with disabilities.

A few tears escaped from several audience members as a string trio from the Meadows School of the Arts closed the dedication with “What a Wonderful World.” It was a song, Clarke said, that Molina would have chosen had he been in attendance.

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