Joseph Dewey Foss

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BORN: Sept 11, 1898, Onalaska, WI

DIED: May 29, 1990 (91), Onalaska, WI

Born Joseph Dewey Foss in Onalaska in 1898, to Carl and Josephine (Davidson) Foss. Known most commonly as Dewey.

He married Elsie (Holthaus) and had two sons - Peter and Carl.

He was an Army veteran of World War I and a member of the Onalaska American Legion.

An influential eighth-grade teacher inspired Dewey to become an art teacher and he graduated from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. He taught in Milwaukee for 35 years, but returned each summer to his boyhood home to work at the canning company, go fishing and boating and paint. He retired from teaching in 1960 and later returned to the Coulee Region in Onalaska. 

J. Dewey Foss was a member of the Wisconsin Art Teachers Assoc., was active in local art clubs and served as President of the LaCrosse Society of of Arts and Crafts in the 1980s.

Considered an excellent artist specializing in paintings of landscapes and nautical scenes. He also produced wooden fishing lures with unique and beautiful painted patterns.