Gary Lee Price

At the age of 6 years old Gary Lee Price witnessed the murder-suicide of his mother, Betty Jo Reeder, and his step-father, Ted Reeder in Manheim, Germany. He was shipped back to the states to be raised by his mom's first husband, Wayne Price. Price went to both grade school and high school in Montpelier, Idaho. After graduating from Montpelier High School, he went on to study at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho. He then served a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in southern Germany. Following his mission, Price studied in Jerusalem for six months through Brigham Young University’s Study Abroad program. He then studied at the Utah Technical College in Orem, Utah (now Utah Valley University), where he met and studied with sculptor Stan Johnson.^[1] With Johnson's encouragement, Price decided to continue his education at the University of Utah where he graduated with a BA in Art. His professional sculpting career took off almost immediately with the sales of his early Western and Native American pieces, including Sacred Meat and Ascent. Price credits the piece Ascent as the inspiration for his "Statue of Responsibility". Stephen R. Covey was instrumental in introducing Gary Lee Price to the Statue of Responsibility. Dr Covey was a friend and colleague of holocaust survivor, Viktor E. Frankl, author of Man's Search for Meaning, Covey made a commitment to Frankl to make sure that Frankl's vision of a Statue of Responsibility on the West coast would one day "bookend" the Statue of Liberty on the East coast. Price holds the trademarks and copyrights, and is the official sculptor for this project. Price and his wife, Leesa Clark-Price have created a non-profit organization, Statue of Responsibility Foundation which is currently^[when?] in the third phase^{[clarification needed]} of this endeavor. Price's memoirs, a book titled Divine Turbulence: Navigating the Amorphous Winds of Life, were released in 2022.