underappreciatedrochestaria-blog

[underappreciatedrochestaria-blog]

Wedell Castel (1932-2018) Born: November 6, 1932, Emporia, Kansas Died: January 20, 2018, Rochester, New York

Short Bio: Wendell Castle created unique pieces of handmade sculpture and furniture for over four decades. Since the outset of his career, Castle consistently challenged the traditional boundaries of functional design and established himself as the father of the American studio furniture movement. Castle was renowned for his superb craftsmanship, his whimsically organic forms and his development of original techniques for shaping solid, stack-laminated wood. His iconic masterpieces in wood and in Technicolor gel-coated fiberglass from the late 1960s and 1970s are fast becoming some of the most important and coveted examples of the 20th century design. Mr. Castle taught at Rochester Institute of Technology where he was the head of the woodworking department from 1962-1969. In 1890, he opened the Wendell Castle School in Scottsville, New York. He won various awards and grants in his lifetime for his accomplishments in the arts and did not stop creating new works until his death in 2018.

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Joseph Henry “Joe” Simon

Born: October 11, 1913, in Rochester, NY

Died: December 14, 2011, in Manhattan, NY

Born Hymie Simon, Joe Simon was born to an English father and American mother in Rochester, NY. Simon’s family was not wealthy, and he recalled in his biography that they lived in a flat that doubled as his father’s tailoring shop. Simon’s first job was as an assistant art director at the Rochester Journal-American before moving to Syracuse to do editorial cartoons.

At 23, Simon moved to New York City and met Jack Kirby. The pair began to work together and moved to Timely Comics (later Marvel Comics), creating the character of Captain America in 1940. The first issue- featuring Captain America punching Hitler in the jaw- was released in December 1940 and sold almost a million copies. Simon and Kirby went on to create many more superhero stories and also pioneered the genre of romance comics, and Simon produced a recruiting comic for the Coast Guard during his enlistment in WW2. In 1955, Simon moved to work on primarily advertising art, ending his partnership with Kirby.

Simon and Kirby would reunite for projects over the years, and Simon moved onto painting and recreating his classic art in the 2000s, working on that until his death in 2011. Simon’s legacy lives on through the characters he created, and his fans will remember him as the man who created Captain America.

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Mary E. Clarke (1924-2011) Born: December 3rd, 1924, Rochester, NY Died: June 10th, 2011, Austin, TX

Short Bio: Mary Clarke was an officer in the United States Army where she was recognized as being the director of the Women's Army Corps, she was also recognized as the first woman to receive the rank of major general in the US Army. Clarke served in the Army for 36 years, enlisting August of 1945 and promoted to Major general June of 1978, her record standing as the longest career of a woman in the US Army. She would, later on, be given an honorary master degree by Norwich University in military sciences and continue working into her retirement, being appointed to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services until her death in June of 2011.

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Lewis Henry Douglass

Lewis Henry Douglass (1840-1908) Born: New Hartford, Massachusetts Died: Washington, D.C. Short Bio:  In his youth, Lewis apprenticed as a typesetter for his father Frederick Douglass, who published The North Star and Douglass' Weekly in Rochester, New York. Douglass enlisted in the now famed 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry on March 25, 1863. The regiment's commander, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, immediately appointed Douglass as a sergeant major, the highest rank an African American could hold at that time. Douglass saw action at the battles of James Island, Olustee, and Fort Wagner. Douglass played a major part in training his fellow black soldiers resulting in their effectiveness on the battlefield. Douglass was wounded at the Battle of Fort Wagner in 1864 and discharged from the army, returning home to Rochester. Douglass married Helen Amelia Loguen in 1869 and settled in the Anacostia section of Washington, D.C. Also in 1869, he became the first African American typesetter employed by the Government Printing Office. His tenure in this position proved short-lived, however, because the typesetters' union refused him membership because of his race. Following this setback, Douglass helped establish and publish The New National Era, a weekly newspaper aimed at Washington's African American community. Lewis Douglass also served as Assistant Marshall of the District of Columbia and a term on the Legislative Council of the District of Columbia, positions appointed to him by President Ulysses S. Grant directly.

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“When I first heard of Rattlesnake Pete, I assumed he was a Rochesterian who died at the hands of a rattlesnake- but I don’t think I could have been further from wrong. Pete Gruber was a man who traveled to Rochester, so not a native but he definitely made his name here, and he surrounded himself with snakes among other reptiles. Once in Rochester, he was known for serving drinks to patrons while they stared in awe of his extensive collections. People refer to his collection as various “oddities” but I doubt that they were so odd to him considering he was surrounded by them. At some point, three-legged chickens and copperheads become everyday things. Rattlesnake Pete actually had more than simply an eccentric collection; his collection actually had quite a few historical items as well such as the battle flag at Custer’s last stand. One item that particularly stuck out to me was the pipe that was supposedly smoked by John Wilkes Booth- not sure how authentic that is, but still, a cool thing to think about. When Rattlesnake Pete couldn’t get any more interesting, and then I heard that he claimed to heal people with his snakes- literally, wrapping snakes around someone’s neck to cure goiter. Again- not sure about how truthful this is, but people claimed that it worked. Rattlesnake Pete wasn’t a freedom fighter or anything of the sort, but he definitely is Rochester’s hidden gem.”