THE GALLERY SEEKS ARTWORK, AND A BETTER PHOTO OF MR. ROST. Please Contact: Info@GalleryofWisconsinArt.com
BORN: 1909 in Richmond, Indiana
DIED: 2004 in Cedarburg, Wisconsin
Rost was born in Richmond, Indiana, but his family moved to Milwaukee when he was young - and where he spent most of his life. He graduated from Shorewood high school and attended Milwaukee State Teachers College (later becoming UW-Milwaukee) from 1926-1930.
He was an artist/illustrator at a local Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in the early 1930’s (Camp Honey Creek). Rost also worked at the Boerner Botanical Garden in Hales Corners, WI making drawings of their work projects. In 1937, two of his CCC watercolors were purchased by first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, as a Christmas gift to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
He was also awarded various WPA mural projects in three Midwest post offices including Elkhorn, WI (1938), Lancaster, WI (1940), and Paoli, IN (1939) and produced a number of WPA prints. Robert von Neumann helped get him a job as an illustrator at the Milwaukee Journal which he did from 1936-1945. While there, Rost began the Journal's long tradition of detailed "opening day" cartoons for the hunting and f
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