Simon Verity, World-Renowned Stone Carver, Is Dead at 79

Arts|Simon Verity, World-Renowned Stone Carver, Is Dead at 79

Simon Verity, a British stone carver and artisan whose bevy of works included the statues that adorn the western facade of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Upper Manhattan, as well as grottoes, tombstones, fountains and floor inscriptions like the brass lettering that marks the shrine to Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral, died on Aug. 11 at his home in Llandeilo, Wales. He was 79.

His wife, Martha Finney, said the cause was Lewy body dementia.

In 1988, Mr. Verity was chosen to direct the St. John the Divine project. Perhaps his best-known venture, it placed him on a scaffold on Amsterdam Avenue for parts of nine years, leading a small team that, using hammers, mallets and chisels, carved 31 biblical figures (including Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, Abraham and Sarah) and various scenes from limestone blocks in the niches that frame the great brass doors at the Portal of Paradise.

One of the carvings at the portal — a modern reimagining of the burning of Jerusalem — depicts the destruction of the World Trade Center and other city landmarks under a nuclear mushroom. (It was created more than a decade before the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.) The carving also illustrates signs of a rebirth, with stonemasons building on the city’s ashes.

“Mr. Verity took the long-dead worthies of the Hebrew and Christian traditions and made them things of wonder for people in our own day,” he added. “Beyond this present age, his work will endure into a future beyond us.”