Even as a kid, growing up in 1940s and ’50s State College, Joseph A. Smith couldn’t resist the sketch pad. His animated, oddball doodles captured the imagination of his classmates. One childhood friend, Joan (Hawbaker) Brower, has kept several of his early drawings over more than 70 years — including comical caricatures of her father, herself and an unnamed saxophonist whose instrument appears to melt.
“Joe didn’t draw flowers,” recalls Mrs. Brower, a classmate of Mr. Smith’s in the State High Class of 1954. “I just remember Joe drawing all the time on graph paper.”
That hobby turned into a decades-long creative career for Mr. Smith, 89, now living in Easton, Pennsylvania, who grew up at the corner of West Fairmount Avenue and South Atherton Street. Educated at Pratt Institute in New York and a veteran of the U.S. Army, Mr. Smith became a faculty member at the institute in 1962 and taught there for 55 years. His courses included drawing, painting, figure sculpture and anatomy — a class he created in symbolic imagery and visual problem-solving.
Outside the classroom, Mr. Smith, a prolific illustrator, has had 22 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 100 group exhibits. A variety of esteemed arts organizations, including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and the Library of Congress, hold his work in their collections. He was a cover artist for TIME and drew editorial illustrations for Newsweek and Harper’s Magazine as well as for TIME. During the Watergate trials, he was a Newsweek editorial courtroom artist.
Mr. Smith may be best known for his contributions to children’s books, more than two dozen of which he has illustrated. They include “Tales from the Jungle Book,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Witch’s Child,” “Goblins in Green” and “Runnery Granary.”
Mr. Smith’s collaboration with New York Times-bestselling author Erica Jong on “Witches,” a 1981 book, captivated readers with a rich exploration — and celebration — of witchcraft and its history. Publishers Weekly called the volume “sumptuously and provocatively illustrated.”
Even with his full dance card, Mr. Smith never missed a State High Class of ’54 reunion, Mrs. Brower says. Held every five years through 2019, the gatherings featured programs with his Little Lion-themed illustrations — nuanced, thoughtful and entertaining.
His career achievements embody the catchphrase adopted by his ambitious class: “We did more in ’54.” As Mrs. Brower puts it: “Who’s done more than Joe?”
Written by Adam Smeltz