Draper Hill, 73 - Detroit News editorial cartoonist
Kathi
Mark Hicks / The Detroit News
http://detnews.com/article/20090514/OBITUARIES/905140434/1263/Cartoonist-influenced-readers
w/photo and a cartoon (click to enlarge)
A Draper Hill editorial cartoon could engage readers' eyes -- and
minds.
Drawing in dramatic ink strokes, the longtime former Detroit News
cartoonist could depict news events -- elections, auto industry
fluxes, economic turmoil -- with incisive images.
"He wanted to increase the awareness of people and get them more
engaged with what's around them," said his son, Jon. "He wanted to
challenge them to get more involved and interested in the political
landscape. He wanted to push the envelope."
Mr. Hill died Wednesday, May 13, 2009. He was 73.
Born July 1, 1935, in Boston, he was raised in Wellesley Hills, Mass.,
and graduated from Harvard University in 1957. He later studied art at
the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, on a
Fulbright grant.
Mr. Hill began his career as a cartoonist at the Patriot Ledger and
Worcester Telegram in Massachusetts and worked at the Commercial
Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., before joining The News in 1976.
Some of his most striking pieces skewered political figures and
situations, including Detroit's provocative mayor, Coleman A. Young.
"His cartoons were usually a gentle form of humor, but he could draw
blood when he felt it was warranted," said Jeffrey Hadden, Detroit
News deputy editorial page editor. "As an editorial writer, I
sometimes envied his ability to more strongly convey a point with a
few well-placed pen strokes."
The drawings were "extremely sophisticated and had deeper meaning, so
you would have to study it," said Ben Burns, former Detroit News
executive editor and director of the Wayne State University journalism
program. "He was capable of taking a famous piece of art and
converting that into a cartoon about something going on locally. He
stimulated people to think."
In an introduction to an exhibition in the 1970s, Hill offered: "We
are still the Peeping Toms at the palace keyhole; still expected every
now and again to hit (responsibly, of course) just a wee bit below the
belt."
In 1983, he earned a Guggenheim Fellowship to work on a biography of
political cartoonist Thomas Nast. His previous works included "Mr.
Gillray, the Caricaturist," a biography of James Gillray.
A past president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists,
Mr. Hill wrote its magazine's history column and won Germany's Thomas
Nast Prize in 1990, said member V. Cullum Rogers. "He was a repository
of history. Among working cartoonists in the U.S., he probably knew
more about the field than any other."
Retiring in 1999, Mr. Hill often exhibited his work and lectured.
Other survivors include his wife, Sarah; a daughter, Jennifer; two
grandchildren, Jack Hill and Charlie Hill; and two brothers, Jack and
Peter.
Services were May 16 at Christ Church Grosse Pointe, Grosse Pointe
Farms.
.