Monday Memories: Chain-smoking imp serving time in Michigan hails from Toledo

The stony-faced centurion serving hard time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Milan, Mich., is 200 pounds of solid limestone and hangs on a gym wall. His nicotine-stained lips are evidence of a pack-a-day habit and devotion of fellow inmates who supply the butts. But, the hometown of the impish worker hand-carved into a 2-by-2-foot stone block was a mystery until 1999, when Bruce Baker, retired prison masonry instructor, confessed to the collar. In 1971, he brought four corner statues of toilers stored at the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library to the prison to provide projects for inmates taking his masonry class. The dwarf wielding a hammer was chosen to be installed as a permanent fixture on an outside gym wall, overlooking the tennis courts.