Standish backus biography template

American naval officer and painter (1910–1989)

Standish Backus, Jr. (April 5, 1910 – October 12, 1989) was a United States military artist.^[1]

Biography

Born in Detroit, he attended Princeton University, where he obtained in 1933 a degree in architecture.

He then spent a year at the University of Munich studying painting. After a brief period in Maine studying watercolor under Eliot O'Hara, he relocated to Santa Barbara, in 1935 and began working full-time as an artist.

Standish backus biography template

At the start of the Second World War he commissioned as an ensign in the Naval Reserve in 1940, and became an active-duty officer in 1941. He spent most of the war assigned to Net and Boom Defenses in the South Pacific.

He transferred to a special graphic presentation unit in 1945 and spent the last year of the Pacific theater as a combat artist.

By the end of the war he had obtained the rank of commander. He left active service in May 1946 and taught at the University of Calif