Charlie Dent possessed an incurably restless spirit. During his career as a United Airlines pilot, he collected countless European art treasures while campaigning for international air safety and founding an organization called U.N. We Believe. Dent spent his final two decades resurrecting Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Il Cavallo,” a 24-foot-tall, never-completed equestrian statue.

Leonardo had sculpted a clay model of his masterpiece but it was destroyed by soldiers in 1499 before it could be cast in bronze. In 1967, Leonardo’s drawings of the horse were discovered; a decade later, Dent obtained a catalog of the sketches, consulted art historians and learned to sculpt. He hired other sculptors, founded Leonardo da Vinci’s Horse Inc. (LDVHI) and began recreating Il Cavallo on his family farm west of Allentown.

In 1999, five years after Dent died, LDVHI unveiled the completed bronze statue in Milan, Italy.

Dent’s nephew, Charles Dent ’93G, is a Pennsylvania Congressman.