Haig Patigian

Haig Patigian (; January 22, 1876 – September 19, 1950), was an Ottoman Empire-born American sculptor, of Armenian heritage. He spent most of his life in San Francisco, California.

Biography Haig Patigian was born on January 22, 1876, in Van, Ottoman Empire (now Turkey), to parents of Armenian heritage. His father Avedis was a photographer, and he was accused by the Turkish government of acts of espionage and religious treason, resulting in the family needing to flee. Around 1891, Avedis left first, and settled in Fresno, California. A year or so later the rest of the family joined him. and most of his works are located in California. The Oakland Museum of California in Oakland, California, includes a large number of his works in its collection, and more can be seen in and around San Francisco City Hall.

Patigian was an active member of the Bohemian Club, serving two terms as club president. He designed the Owl Shrine, a 40-foot high hollow concrete and steel structure which was built in the 1920s to have the appearance of a natural rock outcropping which happened to resemble an owl. The Owl Shrine became the centerpiece of the Cremation of Care ceremony at the Bohemian Grove in 1929.

Patigian married Blanche Hollister of Courtland, California, in 1908. They lived in a house in at the corner of Hyde and Francisco Streets in the Russian Hill neighborhood. Monument to Dr. Chester Rowell (1914), Fresno, California Electricity, Imagination, Invention and Steam (c. 1915); four repeated sculptures at the Machinery Palace, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California (destroyed) Statue of Gen. John Pershing (1922), San Francisco, California Department of Commerce Building, pediment, Washington D.C., 1934