Tom Rost, Illustrator ("Field & Stream")
Bill Schenley
http://www.jsonline.com/news/nobits/apr04/222275.asp
As an artist, Tom Rost sometimes went to unusual lengths to
get the right look for his wildlife illustrations.
Take the time that a magazine needed a musky-fishing
illustration.
"It was the middle of January," he later said. "I managed to
find an aluminum boat and persuaded two friends to pose for
me in a snowy cornfield.
"It was a Sunday morning and people were coming home from
church. You should have seen the double takes as they passed
us - two guys in a boat in the middle of a field, making
casting motions. And me taking pictures of them."
Thomas L. Rost Jr. - known professionally as Tom Rost - died
of pancreatic cancer Monday. He was 95.
A few weeks ago, as his health suddenly began to fail,
doctors tried to figure out what was wrong. In typical Rost
fashion, he found a bit of humor about the diagnosis
process, family members said.
"Well, I don't want to have what everyone else has," he
wryly commented.
Rost was born in Richmond, Ind., but spent most of his life
in the Milwaukee area. He graduated from Shorewood High
School and Milwaukee State Teachers College, then became an
illustrator with the Civilian Conservation Corps during the
Great Depression.
Two of his CCC watercolors were purchased by first lady
Eleanor Roosevelt, a Christmas gift to President Franklin D.
Roosevelt in 1937.
He married the former Janet Morgenroth in 1931. They were
married nearly 65 years when she died in 1996.
In 1936, Rost began as a staff illustrator at The Milwaukee
Journal, working at the paper until 1945. During World War
II, he created many of the maps used to describe the
progress of the war.
His eyesight kept him from active duty, but he drew the
silhouettes of U.S. aircraft for the government, used to
help train civil defense workers on how to distinguish
friendly aircraft from enemy aircraft, said son Jon Rost.
Rost also began the Journal's long tradition of detailed
"opening day" cartoons for the hunting and fishing seasons.
A writer once observed that Rost was religiously accurate in
his drawings.
"He makes a rainbow trout look like a rainbow and not like a
brown," the unnamed writer declared. "When he draws a
spinning reel, you can be sure it will look like the
original right down to the screw head that holds the handle
in place."
International Wildlife magazine once needed illustrations of
some exotic South American fish. The specimens were frozen,
packed in ice and shipped by air to Rost's home studio in
Cedarburg.
"He would draw a little while and the fish would start to
thaw," Jon said. "He would have to stick it back in the
freezer before he could draw again."
A dedicated hunter and angler, Rost came by his observations
naturally. His own favorite quarry was the German brown
trout, what he called "the wiliest of all fish."
"When I catch a brown, I figure I've done everything right,"
Rost said in 1978.
That story appeared after Rost's drawing of a brook trout
was picked for Wisconsin's first inland trout stamp in 1978.
Another illustration was picked for the stamp in 1981.
After the Journal, Rost worked in commercial art for five
years in New York City. He also began his long association
with Field & Stream and other wildlife magazines.
Rost returned to Milwaukee, co-founding the Slater-Rost
Studios and later freelancing. He continued to work in
commercial art, including for Harley-Davidson, Simplicity
and other local firms.
A longtime resident of Cedarburg, Rost earlier served on its
Plan Commission and the Design Review Board. More than 30
years ago - as plans were proposed to demolish Cedarburg's
prominent mill property for a filling station and
convenience store - Rost was one of those who successfully
fought the proposal, said his son.
"He was one of a handful of people who really had a vision
of what Cedarburg could be," Jon Rost said, "and did
whatever they could to preserve and protect the existing
architecture and keep the historical nature of the
community."
In recent years, arthritis kept him from drawing, but his
illustrations still exist. Two of his Field & Stream covers
appeared in the magazine's 2004 calendar.
Besides his son Jonathan, survivors include daughters Gay
Stanislawski and Carol Jean Rost; son Tom; sister Jane Will;
brother R. Wayne; friend Corinthia VanOrsdol; grandson Eric.
A memorial service will be held at a later date.
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Tom Rost's "Field & Stream" cover art:
http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/apr04/rostabig041404.jpg
Photo:
http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/news/img/apr04/rostbig041404.jpg
Hyfler/Rosner
"Bill Schenley" <stra...@ma.rr.com> wrote in message
news:PPKfc.23081$B%4.1...@fe2.columbus.rr.com...
> FROM: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ~
>
> http://www.jsonline.com/news/nobits/apr04/222275.asp
>
> As an artist, Tom Rost sometimes went to unusual lengths
to
> get the right look for his wildlife illustrations.
>
I worked with his son, Tom, until just recently. (An
artist/art director) I would have loved talking to him about
his father, who sounds like he was a really cool guy. But
he never mentioned him.