Rupert sculpts out a career in carving after teaching at IUP for 25 years

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Written by Larry Mcguire

Tuesday, 19 January 2010

Randy Rupert carves a groundhog at his work space. (Photo by Larry McGuire/The Punxsutawney Spirit) PUNXSUTAWNEY — You could say that Randy “The Wizard” Rupert was born to carve groundhogs out of ice and wood. Rupert said he has been carving wooden groundhogs full-time for nearly eight years, after spending 25 years as a chef instructor at the IUP Academy of Culinary Arts in Punxsy. During those years, he also participated in a lot of ice sculpting competitions, as well as promoting the Groundhog Day ice carving event. “I remember I was unloading the ice truck, and someone said hello to my guys on the ground, and there was Bill Murray with a baseball cap on and a trench coat,” Rupert said. “He was here to scope out what the Groundhog Day event was like before the movie was shot.” Rupert said a week later, he received a call from David Nichols, a set director for Columbia Pictures. “I thought it was a prank phone call at first,” he laughed. “They told me they wanted to have the ice carving competition included in the movie, but most of it ended up on the cutting room floor. “There were many extras dressed as ice carvers pretending to work on my pieces,” Rupert added. “I was there, on scene, for nine days in Woodstock, Ill., while they shot the movie. “I remember working for hours on an ice sculpture they called ‘Winged Victory,’ which in the movie appeared like Murray was carving himself,” he said. “I had to carve it in different stages so it looked like he was carving it. “We worked out of a refrigerated area located in a catering business,” Rupert said. “In the cooler, they had spumoni stored in there, and we would eat spumoni with ice chisels instead of a spoon.” Rupert said that he doesn’t miss the culinary arts because it wasn’t his cup of tea. “My wife, Martha Jo (Blake) Rupert, still works at IUP as a chef instructor, and works out of my old office,” he said. “I was heavily involved with ice carving back then,” Rupert said. “Nine years in a row, I went to Jamaica and did ice sculpting for Superclub Resorts. “You have to work fast with ice to begin with. In 90-degree weather, you have to work a little faster,” he said. Rupert said carving ice is easy compared carving to wood, because with wood, one must worry about the chainsaw kicking back. “Of the 25 years I worked in culinary, 20 of those years were as an executive chef,” he said. “Ice carving was a sideline. Eventually, I decided to go into the wood carving business, which I began near Clarion.” Rupert explained that he became a groundhog wood carver by mistake. “I became friends while I was an ice carver, with a maintenance man, who asked if I could carve a bear out of wood for him, so I gave it a try,” he said. “He took it to work, and 150 employees wanted one, which is how my business began.” He said after moving his business to Clarion, he would bring wood carvings to Groundhog Day, which he said was always his best sales day of the year. “So, now I’m the ‘groundhog carver,’ and now, here I am with a beautiful shop in the old Strawns building on East Mahoning Street,” he said. Not only does Rupert sell carved groundhogs in western Pennsylvania, but he also sells and ships them to countries around the world, including Canada and Germany, to name a few. “Many visitors for Groundhog Day purchase a carved groundhog, but have it shipped to their home instead trying to take it on a plane,” he said, adding that he usually sells more than 100 groundhogs during that weekend. “I’m behind this year because I’ve been carving a 25 foot totem pole in Brookville,” he said. “So, I’m going to be busy for the next few weeks carving 100 groundhogs.” Rupert’s most popular groundhog carving is “Hog in the Log,” which looks like Phil coming out his old maple stump at Gobbler’s Knob. After he carves the groundhogs, he burns the wood to give it a rustic look, and then paints the top hats black. Rupert is environmentally-friendly, as he carves sculptures from pieces of trees that are left over from when a tree is cut down or trimmed. “These pieces of wood would just go to waste for the most part,” he said, adding that he has the perfect job working on something he loves. For more information, call Rupert at 938-6900 or 227-8411, or check out www.randyrupert.com.

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 20 January 2010 )