I was at an estate sale on the border of Maine and New Hampshire this weekend. That's where I walked into a large shed and picked up a few what they call "paper ephemera" items, including the 1974 Golden Round-the-World Calendar "with Language Fun and Travel Facts." What a grand piece of Midcentury Modern art. It wasn't until I bought it and took it home that I saw the credit that it was illustrated by Dan Lawler. It's rare that an illustrator gets credit for something like this, so that was an unexpectedly welcome thing to see.
Dan Lawler (1918 - 2018) was best known as the creator and artist for hundreds of covers for Humpty Dumpty magazine, as well as Parents Magazine and cartoons for Reader's Digest. He designed the iconic clock above the NYC FAO Schwartz Toy Store entrance. He passed away in 2018 at the age of 100, survived by his four children and eleven grandkids.
"Dan was a scholarship graduate of the Minneapolis School of Art. He won a fellowship to study in New York City with a master portraitist. His studies were interrupted by World War II where he was deployed with the Army to the European Theater. He landed on Utah Beach on D-Day and fought in the Normandy campaign as a recon platoon sergeant. While on a scouting mission, months after D-Day, his whole patrol was ambushed, and Dan was wounded and taken prisoner. He survived a prisoner of war column heading east towards Germany. His German captors, whom Dan later praised for their mercy, deposited Dan and other wounded soldiers in the town of Tournai, Belgium, where the townspeople treated their wounds and provided shelter for them.
"Dan was later transferred to the VA hospital at Battle Creek, Michigan. His young wife Jeanne joined him there and they were inseparable ever afterwards. Dan and Jeanne were long-time residents of Centerport, L.I., N.Y. They celebrated their 50th anniversary there in 1993. Jeanne died of Parkinson’s disease at Chandler Hall in Newtown in 2003.
"Dan was a long-time artist for Parents Magazine in New York City. He loved art and he loved the Great City. Dan had great charm, imagination, and skill. There was little that he could not create to entertain his beloved wife, children, relatives, grandchildren, and friends, from personalized, humorous anniversary cards every June 18th to rope swings and rocking horses for the children."
-- Joseph A. Fluehr III Funeral Home Inc. obituary
More:
John K Stuff blog: Humpty Dumpty Magazine - Dan Lawler Illustrations
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