Organ Recipient Helped Design Memorial Dedicated To Donors

Dispatch Staff Reporter

Watching yesterday, Marion residents Kathleen and Rick Fremont gently set the final brick in place in a walkway leading to a new sculpture honoring organ donors.

The brick -- engraved with the name of the Fremonts' son, Christopher William -- represented many people who, like Chris, have provided the gift of life to others.

"I had no idea we would be able to place the brick,'' Mrs. Fremont said after the ceremony. "It made me feel closer to Chris, to be able to touch the brick.''

The $350,000 memorial outside the Lifeline of Ohio offices -- at 770 Kinnear Rd. on the Northwest Side -- was designed by Roger Wells, a retired landscape architect who received a liver transplant in 1987.

"All of the recipients feel the same way,'' said Wells of Westerville. "They remember their donors every day. They don't forget them once they receive an organ. This is a lifelong relationship.''

Wells' friend and former business partner, Dean Ramsey, helped design the three-quarter-acre park that with the walkway and sculpture make up the memorial.

Lifeline of Ohio is an independent, nonprofit organization that coordinates the donation of organs and tissues for transplantation for 67 hospitals in central and southeastern Ohio.

The memorial features a stainless-steel sculpture of the double- loop infinity symbol atop a pedestal rising out of a small fountain. The sculpture can be seen from Rt. 315 southbound.

The pathway features more than 200 bricks engraved with the names of donors, Lifeline spokesman Dave Carlson said. Each brick cost $25. More bricks can be added, he said.

Christopher Fremont was 9 years old when he died in June 1990 after complications during a fourth surgery to repair a gunshot wound in his leg.

His parents didn't hesitate to donate his kidneys, liver, pancreas and one cornea.

"We told them to use whatever they could,'' Mrs. Fremont said.

Their 17-year-old daughter, Shelby, said she finds comfort in knowing that her brother is helping others live.

Shelby said the donor memorial -- the first of its kind in Ohio -- serves as a reminder that "everyone has the opportunity to be an organ donor.''

For more information, contact Lifeline of Ohio at 800-525-5667.

Copyright © 2000 The Columbus Dispatch.

This article posted November 5, 2000.