About

Born in Arkansas City, Kansas, in 1918, Jack Edward Barber grew up in Ponca City, Oklahoma. After graduating from Ponca City High School, he enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, where he studied painting for three years under the mentorship of Thomas Hart Benton. He also studied sculpture under Wallace Rosenbower, and graphics under John De Martelli. When he returned for his second year of study at the Kansas City Art Institute he met Ruth Cathrin Kretzmeier, from Manhattan, Kansas, who was also a student at the Art Institute. In November of 1941, Jack enlisted as an aircraft armorer in the maintenance division of Army Air Corps, and was subsequently sent to Biloxi, Mississippi for basic training. Before going to Biloxi, he had to be processed through the army reception center at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where his artistic talents were recognized by his battalion commander and he subsequently painted several murals in officers’ quarters before going to Mississippi. Jack and Ruth were married on April 25, 1942; just before he was shipped to his first tour of overseas duty on the island of Trinidad, in the Caribbean. At the end of World War II, Jack received a commission for a painting of the Pacific Northwest, and used the trip to the Oregon Coast as a belated honeymoon. He and Ruth never returned to the Midwest, settling instead in Spokane, Washington, where Jack subsequently earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Whitworth College in 1967. He then accepted a position as the head of the art department at Oregon City High School, where he taught for the next 20 years. He was very diversified in his artistic talents, and created works in oil, egg tempera, acrylic, water color, lithography, and sculpture. In 1974, he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Brigham Young University. His Master’s thesis exhibit at Brigham Young University included a series of seascapes of the Oregon Coast. Shortly after moving to Oregon, Jack joined the Brush and Palette Club; an affiliation that afforded him contact with fellow artists who became good friends. After his retirement in December of 1985, Jack continued to be active in teaching art; volunteering his time as an art teacher in the North Marion Middle School and also at the Parrot Creek School for Troubled Youth. He passed away in Oregon City in 2003.

Note: Below are two self-portraits that my father painted.