Students lobbying for Bruce Lee statue

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SEATTLE, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- A group of University of Washington students has collected more than 1,000 signatures as part of an effort to have a memorial built to Bruce Lee.

"Bruce Lee was more than a martial artist," student Courtney Ioane told the Los Angeles Times. "He also had an amazing philosophy of life. He's a cultural icon recognized all over

the world -- except on this campus."

The movie star, who was born in San Francisco and raised in Hong Kong, studied at the university for three years in the early 1960s. Lee met his wife, Linda, on the campus and taught martial arts classes on the lawn.

He died at the age of 32 of a cerebral edema a few months after completing his 1973 blockbuster "Enter the Dragon" and was buried in Seattle.

Ioane said she thinks a life-sized, bronze statue of Lee would help reflect the student body's diversity in a way that the school's collection of public art has, thus far, failed to do.

Norm Arkans, a spokesman for the university, told the Times the university would consider the proposal, but, "As far as I know, nothing has been submitted yet."