John DePol, 1913–2004, wood engraver, illustrator.
Upon the early death of his father, John DePol left high school and went to work to help support his mother and two younger siblings. He had always been a keen sketcher and became fascinated by etching he saw in a shop window near where he worked. He taught himself etching and printing and in the Spring of 1935 made his own first print using a manually operated clothes wringer. He learned lithography nights at the Art Students League of New York and studied briefly at the College of Art in Belfast while he was stationed there during WWII, but he remained largely self-taught. After his return to civilian life, he married Thelma Rotha and worked on Wall Street and then for a commercial printing firm. However he continued making prints and refining his skills, to become one of the premier wood engravers of his time. His prolific output includes innumerable independent works as well as collaborations with The Allen Press, The Pickering Press, Hammer Creek Press and the Typophiles, whose meetings he attended with his wife Thelma. In old age, he looked as noble as any American monument and as finely-chiseled as one of his own engravings.
