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Sculpture Will Memorialize Couple's Love

John Tischner/SUNCOAST NEWS

ARTIST TAMARA GERKIN works on a commissioned bust of William Bissi and his late wife Dorothy. The piece will soon be cast in bronze and placed at the family gravesite in Trinity Memorial Gardens.

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By John Tischner | The Suncoast News

Published: November 28, 2007

His neatly appointed office looks like a law library. A plethora of tomes rests on the shelves of a wall-lined bookcase.

William L. Bissi sits behind a solid wooden desk and greets a visitor with a warm, firm handshake.

Bissi is dressed in a flannel shirt and khaki slacks. A short, neatly trimmed silver-gray beard adorns his face.

There is a twinkle in his eyes, slightly shaded by a baseball-type cap that says "Bucks" on it, the symbol of the famous Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, one of the NBA's winningest teams.

He is 92 years old, runs a successful business, and is looking for a "top notch agent" and a publisher for a book he recently wrote on winning disability cases.

"I'm officially retired," he says with a laugh.

With a smile and the demeanor of a Southern gentleman, although he's been in Florida only 25 years, the soft-spoken Bissi says of the prospective agent, "I think I have one in New Jersey."

Long marriage

The warm smile belies a hurt beneath it. Bissi's wife Dorothy passed away in July after 64 ½ years of marriage. When he speaks of her, his demeanor changes. The hurt appears.

"We were married on Valentine's Day. I was in the Army in World War II," he explains.

"I miss my wife. I keep busy and that's what keeps me going," he says. "It isn't easy; she was 86."

After graduating from Northwest University in Chicago, Bissi went to Washington, D.C. where he earned a juris doctor degree from George Washington University. "I didn't really enjoy law," he says, the reason he didn't pursue the legal profession.

Bissi worked for the Social Security Administration beginning in the late 1930s.

Dorothy, a Nebraska native, worked for the Social Security Administration in Washington, D.C. They met at a picnic. They worked together until a couple of years ago.

Gave lectures

During those early days, as a public relations executive, Bissi traveled to seminars in his assigned territory giving lectures for the S.S. Administration.

"They had a long, happy relationship," said son Douglas Bissi, one of four children the couple bore – three girls and one boy.

The elder Bissi eventually was transferred by S.S. to Atlanta and then to Ft. Lauderdale where he "retired" after 35 years. He started his current business in New Port Richey in 1983.

As a turnabout, Bissi's firm now represents underprivileged claimants before the S.S. Administration, helping them win their cases. His firm is Bissi & Associates Disability Advocates LLC on Grand Boulevard.

Underprivileged people have always been a part of his and his wife's life.

"We always have been advocates for the underprivileged," continuing to his after-retirement business.

Active in Moose

Early on, Bissi also was active in Chicago as a volunteer for "the biggest Moose Lodge in the country."

The conversation often turns back to his late wife.

"She had been doing this for as long as he has," says Douglas.

Of their comfortable, long relationship Bissi says "we never really had a disagreement."

Everything they did was done as a family event, says Douglas. "They rarely went anywhere without family. We had wonderful dinners. Birthdays and anniversaries were big."

The couple were homebodies, enjoying their children and grandchildren. "They had a great relationship," said Douglas.

"We'd go on trips to Disney World as a family," said the elder Bissi.

A tough time

Christmas this year will be tough on the Bissi family. "She loved Christmas. She was big on Christmas, that and birthdays, she loved to celebrate," said William Bissi about Dorothy.

The conversation continues about Dorothy.

The elder Bissi recalls one such family event.

"It was Dorothy's 85th birthday. We went to Saddlebrook (resort in Wesley Chapel on the east side of Pasco County). It was an experience she would never forget. Six tuxedoed waiters carried food to our tables. It was real formal," Bissi said with a huge grin.

"That was their life," said Douglas. "We weren't into trips or social cliques. We even had neighbors' kids in our family. They (mother and father) were both people persons."

Last year, the Bissis contracted internationally known artist, mural artist and sculptor Tamara Gerkin of Port Richey to paint a mural on the outside wall of their Grand Boulevard office.

Gerkin had previously painted a period mural on the outside wall of The Reef night club on Main Street in downtown New Port Richey. The family was impressed with her work.

Something original

The Bissis wanted to do something original in memory of Dorothy to be placed at the family gravesite.

Gerkin was commissioned to sculpt a bust of a younger Bissi and his wife embracing. The clay sculpture would then be cast into bronze to be placed on a pedestal on the gravesite in Trinity Memorial Gardens off S.R. 54 in the Trinity area of Pasco County.

Gerkin said she started with an idea.

"My intention was to depict Mr. and Mrs. Bissi's love for each other in a pose that represents the love they had for each other as well as the years they spent together."

The artist sculpted Mr. Bissi's right arm wrapped around his wife with his hand on her midsection. Her hand rests comfortably on his, symbolic of the four children they bore.

Her left hand is placed on her heart reflecting the love for each other, and that they were married on Valentine's Day, Gerkin said. His left hand is strategically placed near her shoulder in a protective mode.

'Emotionally difficult'

"It was emotionally difficult," said Gerkin, "because Mrs. Bissi has passed and I adored her. She also was an artist."

Gerkin says the piece is a modified circle indicative of the circle of life, the family circle.

So far, it has taken Gerkin nearly four months to create the work of art. It is expected to be finished soon.

"We really miss mom," said Douglas. "It will be a nice memorial to her. The sculpture will be definitive of their love for each other. It will be a celebration of that love."

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