Editor’s note: The name “Zoller” was always spoken with reverence in the house I grew up in because both my parents attended Penn State Altoona while the Zollers (he professor of art and she professor of romance languages) were faculty members. Ed Zoller left a particular mark because he was my uncle Patrick W. Boyd’s art teacher and mentor. The following editorial appeared in the Altoona Mirror on November 8, 1967, shortly after Ed Zoller’s passing. It reveals not only how his contemporaries felt about him but also a most likely little-known contribution he made to the campus that we continue to appreciate today.
Men who hew to a standard often impose on themselves a hardship which costs them their lives. It was true of Edwin W. Zoller, who died last month of pneumonia he contracted while concluding a one-man showing of his abstract impressionalist paintings at Hazleton Art Gallery.
The Altoona Campus, where he taught art and philosophy as a member of its faculty from 1946 to 1956, both enjoyed and was enriched by Mr. Zoller’s stimulating, perceptive presence.
But even more, the Campus itself, as it will grow and expand for future generations of students, will be a monument to Mr. Zoller, whose original concept of what it should be is slowly materializing in brick and steel. It was Mr. Zoller’s design, and the models of it, that excited the imagination and the enthusiasm for rebuilding the former amusement park. It was Mr. Zoller who prevailed over planners from the main campus when they advocated filling in the former warming pond.
Those who enjoy the visual delight of today’s reflecting pond for the central core of buildings know how right the artist was to resist a strictly utilitarian plan. Because of Edwin Zoller, the Altoona Campus is distinguished architecturally from the other 19 campuses of Penn State.
Mr. Zoller, who retired from the University in 1960 as emeritus professor of art, maintained that while the world of art has been diverted many times by “phases,” it always returns to the truth because of the sincerity of artists. For the benefit of students, he organized the Ivyside Art Gallery, which, financed by student funds each year buys significant works for enrichment of any mind which views them.
Among the richest monuments which men leave behind are those which encourage the human spirit by widening its vision. Mr. Zoller leaves such intangible works in the minds and hearts of the students he touched. And for bonus, the pond and the gallery at Ivyside are there for material measure.