STEPHEN ROBERTS
If you find yourself on the 14th floor of the Nebraska State Capitol’s Memorial Chamber, look up. There you’ll see the stunning work of 1976 UNO graduate Stephen Roberts in eight murals serving as a memorial to those in military and civilian service. And they were only 64 years overdue. The building was to include 20 murals when it opened in 1932, but a cash-strapped legislature cut that work from the budget as the Depression raged. Work on 12 murals began in 1954 and was completed by 1967. In the late 1980s the legislature authorized funding to complete the series. Roberts received the commission in 1991 and spent 11,000 hours over five years on the murals, each measuring 7 feet by 12 feet. They were dedicated in November 1996.