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Frank Creech's 'The Rescue,' a bronze statue, was inspired by all the help he got after his studio burned in 1999.
Staff Photo by Leslie Barbour Frank Creech, a Smithfield sculptor who shaped as many lives as heaps of clay, died unexpectedly Saturday at age 65. Creech collapsed at a local gym Friday when a blood clot slipped from his leg to his lungs, starving him of oxygen, his family said. He died the next afternoon at Johnston Memorial Hospital. Creech was a native son who found his way home after college to boost the young in a community that he bragged had done right by him. He logged 25 years in the studios and labs of Johnston Community College, teaching students how to paint, sculpt and design. Late in life, Creech still thought of himself as a student with much to learn; most days, he toiled on one project or another in the studio behind his Smithfield home. As a linebacker, he led the Smithfield High School football team to the state championship in 1959. That year, he earned the attention of recruiters and eventually a free ride to play ball at Duke University. "I played football there every day of the week but Saturday," Creech joked during an interview last summer. His homegrown prowess might not have kept pace with the team's, but his loyalty to the Blue Devils remained as strong through the years as his distaste for UNC-Chapel Hill. As he tells it, UNC snubbed him as a young recruit; Creech never forgave the slight. Nor did he forgive friends fond of the Tar Heels. Kevin Koebley, a Smithfield dentist and friend of Creech, remembers the artist stepping out onto his porch whenever Duke defeated UNC and unleashing a hearty "yee haw." He'd paint the score on a sheet and drape it against his house
to chide a buddy down the street who rooted for the Tar Heels. Creech eventually found a way to meld his two passions: Duke University and art. He completed a number of sculptures for the Ad Links university, and he recently talked with Duke officials about creating a massive statue featuring a reveling Blue Devil standing tall over the battle-weary mascots of other Atlantic Coast Conference teams. Friends and family treasured Creech as a joker who could tease his way out of any tense moment. When a fire ravaged his art studio six years ago --on his wedding anniversary --he told Kay, his wife and high school sweetheart, "I'd been expecting a hot time, but not that kind of hot." Friends and family say they'll remember him for more than art or football. Kay Creech said her husband had an undying faith in others' ambitions. As his son, Franklin, reached junior high in the 1980s, Creech and his friend Koebley formed a Boy Scout troop, inviting boys who couldn't have afforded to join. As Smithfield residents recall, it was the first integrated Boy Scout troop in Johnston County. "Dad somehow managed to invite people to dream," said Franklin Creech, now the principal at Fuquay-Varina Elementary School. "He'd make people believe they could do things they doubted they could. It was a true gift." Creech will be buried this afternoon. Funeral services will begin at 2 p.m. at First Baptist Church on South Fourth Street in Smithfield. Burial will follow. Creech is survived by his wife of 43 years, Kay; two children, Franklin Creech of Clayton and Georgeanna West of Wilmington; two grandchildren, Emma Creech, 6, and Olivia Creech, 2; and a brother, Joe Creech of Roswell, Ga. Staff writer Mandy Locke can be reached at 829-8927 or mandy.locke@newsobserver.com. © Copyright 2006, The News & Observer Publishing Company
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