IU plans statue of WWII journalist Ernie Pyle

Indiana University officials are planning to honor World War II journalist Ernie Pyle with a statue on the Bloomington campus.

Provost Lauren Robel says the bronze statue will be modeled after a photograph of Pyle during the war sitting on a crate, working with his typewriter on a table, with goggles pushed above his knit cap.

The Herald-Times reports the statue will be placed outside Franklin Hall, where IU's journalism program will be relocating as part of a new media school.

Pyle grew up near the western Indiana town of Dana and attended IU before embarking on his journalism career. He died during combat in 1945.

Pyle's statue will be the third on the Bloomington campus, joining longtime IU president Herman B Wells and composer Hoagy Carmichael.