When I recently interviewed Linda Goodwin about her new role as Mercy’s chief operating officer/chief nursing officer, I found out that her husband, Larry Goodwin, has had a hand in some well-known sculptures around the Midwest. 

A retired engineer and metallurgist, Larry Goodwin has collaborated with Kansas sculptor Richard Bergen on such projects as “Ad Astra,” better known as the 22-foot-tall Native American with drawn bow that was mounted atop the Kansas Statehouse in 2002. Goodwin specializes in crafting the bronze patina for the sculptures. He did the bronze work on the larger-than-life bulldog sculpture near Drake Stadium in Des Moines that Bergen completed in 2006, as well as the wildcat at the entrance to the Kansas State University alumni center. Goodwin also crafts his own sculptures. 

He’s now looking for studio space to do projects locally, said Linda Goodwin, who showed me a few of his pieces that she displays in her office at Mercy Medical Center, among them a whimsical bird that he created from old surgical instruments. 

“He’s retired and he doesn’t have to do anything, but he gets bored,” she said