A Pacific Northwest artist, John Haskell Lichtenwalner, 94, of Jacksonville Oregon, passed away peacefully early on January 4, 2016 at Providence Hospital in Medford, Oregon, after a brief illness. His family and his good Augustinian friend Father Jim Clifford were with him, and his wife Francie held his hand throughout his last hours. He is deeply loved and sorely missed.
He was born on August 28, 1921 in Seattle, Washington, first son of Irene Haskell Lichtenwalner and John J. Lichtenwalner. His forbearers’ name, in German, meant “Light in the Woods”, and they included inventors and Alaskan adventurers. He was an intelligent, quiet man with a gentle but acute sense of humor.
He had a lifelong love of the water, the sky, and the outdoors. His early years were lived in view of Washington’s Olympic and Cascade mountains, and he loved (and later rendered in a painting) his bayside home in Tracyton, just outside of Bremerton WA: his pinto pony and their barn cats, his musical mother and his father, whose work took him across the Sound to Seattle on the Bremerton ferry daily.
As a boy, John rowed for miles in the Puget Sound, fishing, and exploring. He once rowed too far, and had to spend the night in a barn near Poulsbo. Perhaps it was the long hours of rowing on the choppy Sound that gave him his strength, patience and balance: he was a graceful volleyball player (on the UW varsity team) and skier, a ballroom dancer in high school, a sailor, and eventually a talented pilot. He worked for a season at the Paradise Inn on Mount Rainier, and told stories of being chased by bears, and ski-jumping off cliffs. Even in his 80’s, he was an elegant ice skater and a vigorous gardener. He did everything with graceful precision and a light touch.
He attended the University of Washington in Seattle for 3 years, prior to volunteering at the start of World War II. He studied drama, but when he switched his major to art he felt he had hit his stride. At the start of the war, he worked in the shipyards as a draftsman. After enlisting, he joined the infantry at Ft. Lewis, Washington and briefly was sent to Stanford University to train in engineering. He was selected for flight training, became part of the Army Air Corps and was trained to fly B-25 bombers. He told many wonderful stories of the freedom and beauty of flying. Later, he was selected as one of 18 pilots who served in the 475th Fighter Group as a First Lieutenant, flying P-38 bombers (the infamous “Fork-tailed Devil”) converted to air reconnaissance. These planes, armed with high-resolution cameras, scouted for the military. After flying over much of the South Pacific, he was transferred to Korea and flew air reconnaissance missions over military sites including Hiroshima.
At the end of WWII, he tried returning to UW but felt he no longer fit in with “the boys”. He was driven to support himself with his artistic abilities, so briefly attended Seattle’s Burnley School of Design (later to become the Art Institute of Seattle), but then chose to attend the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles.
While a student at Art Center, at a party in 1947, he glanced across the room and caught the gaze of a lively, dark-haired TWA stewardess, Laura Frances Groves (Francie). He swiftly found his way across the room to her, and they didn’t stop talking for a week. By 1949, they began their 66 years together in a quiet wedding ceremony at American Martyrs Catholic Church in Manhattan Beach. At that point, John felt himself well-armed to make his way in the emerging world of advertising, and they steered their brand-new red Oldsmobile convertible up the California coast to San Francisco, as a “jumping off point” for the long drive to New York City, where he hoped to find work.
Once in SF, though, John quickly connected with an ad agency; housing was harder to find, but they finally leased a Nob Hill apartment up a long, steep stairway. Those stairs were treacherous for the newly expecting Francie, so they found a small house on a windswept hill in Mill Valley, and 2 children later, a house near the water in San Rafael. John began working as a freelance commercial artist, producing ads that combined quiet humor and bold design.
In the early 1960’s, his distinctive poster art for Portal Galleries captured the feel and look of the acid rock concert scene. He supported his family with his successful nationally distributed commercial art, some of which is still used today. He was a founding member and one of the first Presidents of the San Francisco Society of Illustrators during this heyday of advertising art. In the early 60’s, he was commissioned by the Armed Forces to create several paintings, one of which was displayed in the Pentagon. Washington’s McChord Air Force Base was depicted in these dynamic portraits of jet fighter planes against a leaden Pacific Northwest sky; another of these, “Korea 1945”, captures a P-38 buzzing the mess hall of the airfield, from the point of view of a Korean native. His huge, stylized painting of P-38 fighter planes in formation is a testimonial to his love of flight, and to how WWII launched him into a larger world.
As both the family and the turbulence of the 1960’s grew, John and Francie decided to get back to a more rural setting. In 1971, they sold the San Rafael home and migrated north to Oregon’s Rogue Valley, and a new position for John as an illustrator with the Bear Creek Corporation’s Harry and David/Jackson and Perkins advertising division. John produced many of the signature Harry and David Christmas catalogs, with highly stylized paintings of the Valley’s fruit orchards and homes. By the time he retired in 1988, he was Executive Art Director, and continued producing art for Bear Creek for a number of years.
Throughout his years in Oregon, he developed a new style, inspired in part by the folk artist Grandma Moses, rendering the rural contemporary landscape in a language of simple shapes and repeating forms. Each painting contained a narrative, with repeating visual elements generated from his own history, such as the Tracyton painting of his boyhood home. Many others were painted on commission for clients in Oregon’s Rogue Valley, including a lumber operation and many private homes, based on his interviews with families and on visits to the subject site. He was known for integrating a family’s emotional history into the portrait of their home. Probably several dozen of these paintings exist.
A signature recurring element was the yellow school bus. During his Oregon years of commuting on the back roads to Bear Creek Corporation for work, the school bus would frequently enforce a sort of hiatus in the flow of rural traffic, a moment of reflection on the beauty of the Rogue Valley. As well, the bus signified the safe arrival home of his children. Perhaps more than any other element, the yellow school bus captures his love of the basic rhythms of rural life, and how deeply rooted he had become in his adopted Oregon home.
He was a gifted gardener, partnering with Francie and his daughter Susan to craft terraced gardens at their Jacksonville home. He was a lifelong Catholic, a strong supporter of Sacred Heart and Shepherd of the Valley parishes, and a valued member of the Augustinian seculars in the Rogue Valley. Among his contributions are numerous celebratory banners and altar decorations, and stained glass chapel window designs for the Sacred Heart Meditation Chapel.
John is survived by his loving wife Francie; their son, John G. Lichtenwalner (Marne) of Phoenix, Oregon; his daughters, Susan Lichtenwalner (Alex) of Jacksonville, Oregon, Dr. Anne Barr Lichtenwalner (Karl) of Orono, Maine, Sarah G. Lichtenwalner of Eugene, Ore., Catherine Lichtenwalner May (Brian) of Medford, Ore., and Mary Baer Fiorentino (Marty) of Jacksonville, Florida; his adoring grandchildren, Kendra Chandra Lichtenwalner, Ryan Lichtenwalner (Christie), Katelyn Lichtenwalner, Anna Nicole May, John Kyle May, Elizabeth Catherine May, and Elizabeth Kathryn Baer; and two great-grandchildren, Sebastian Maddox Baer and Arthur Heron Chasse; his brothers Dr. Craig S. Lichtenwalner (Chad) of Atlanta, Georgia and Owen C. Lichtenwalner (Susan) of Suwannee, Georgia; and his sister Marion Henderson (Larry) of Las Vegas, Nev.; and many nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.
A funeral mass and a celebration of John’s life is being held at Shepherd of the Valley Church at 1 pm on February 5th, 2016, followed by a memorial service and interment at the Eagle Point Veterans Cemetery. The family welcomes your memories of John; please communicate with anne.lichtenwalner@gmail.com.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions in John’s memory be made to the Shepherd of the Valley Catholic Church, 600 Beebe Road, Central Point, Ore. 97502. Please designate that the donation should go to the Mexico mission.
Other resources:
http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20080309/LIFE/803090331
http://www.afapo.hq.af.mil/presentation/Common/artistsdetail.cfm?Letter=L&value=377
John was a super artist. An outstanding decorative designer. Second only to Charles Wysoki.We’ve lost another great.