Published on Boston.com – February 24, 2011
By Sarah Moomaw, Globe Correspondent
Tweets from the Northeastern University community were buzzing about a new statue that appeared in front of a busy classroom building earlier this morning.
Outside Shillman Hall, home to one of the Dunkin’ Donuts on campus, sits a bronze statue of a man petting a cat. He’s not on a pedestal, but placed on a stone slab, with room for students to join him. There is no confirmation yet about the identity of the statue.
By the afternoon, rumors as to the statue’s identity began to swirl on Twitter as Robert J. Shillman, who is a trustee of Northeastern.
According to Shillman’s bio on Northeastern’s website, the university named its largest classroom building Shillman Hall after a generous gift from him.
Multiple calls to Northeastern’s media relations, department of facilities, office of the president, and the division of public safety were not able to confirm the identity of the statue or where it came from.