Name: FREAS, Frank Kelly Aged: 82
Born: August 27, 1922 Where: Hornell, NY
Died: January 2, 2005 Where:Los Angeles, CA
Interred: Oakwood Memorial Park, Chatsworth, CA
Married: Pauline H. Bussard When: 1952 (d Jan 24, 1987)
Married 2: Laura Brodian When: c1988
Awards:Hugo for Best Professional Artist: 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976; Skylark Award: 1981; Chesley Award: 1989, 1993, 2000; and others both various and numerous.

Kelly Freas became an international artist at a very early age. It occurred while he was in the Army Air Corp during WWII and sending his paintings of "pin-up" girls on the noses of bombers and fighter escorts to Germany. After the war, Freas studied at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh & worked as a freelance illustrator. His first science fiction artwork appeared in print in 1950...and that began a highly productive career that lasted over half of a century. Even so, given that much time to work, the large number of his award winning artworks is most impressive. Try making a list and you'll get the idea.

Anyone who has been in the military during a time of war knows that the experiences never go away and that the loyalties to comrades is life long. So when Freas heard the Skylab-1 people were looking for someone to design their uniform patch, he was more than eager to do so..."an opportunity I would have paid for." And then NASA commissioned some posters which now hang in the Smithsonian. That was one side of the man. There was another. He painted hundreds of portraits of saints for the Franciscans. He was as much an exceptional human being as an exceptional artist.

To avoid starvation, every career artist must work in many fields, and that work is often unnoticed and uncredited. It is rare, given the number of artists, for someone to achieve fame...even rarer to achieve fame in different fields of art. Freas was that exception. His "cartoon" work for Mad Magazine alone would have assured him lasting fame (he'd laugh at that). His artwork on canvas and board with oils and acrylics has always been in demand and cannot be found on an art festival fence for a couple hundred bucks. Thousands of pen-and-ink drawings are out there somewhere. In science fiction, he dominated the cover art of Astounding and Analog magazines for years with many more interior illustrations. He painted hundreds of paperback novel covers and helped Donald Wollheim make DAW Books a success by being a steady artist in DAW's struggling years. But he became too popular, too much in demand, and could not fill all of the requests from friends and orders from publishers...even though he never stopped trying. He drew record album and CD covers, biological art, sexy ladies, and made convention appearances yearly across most of his fields.

For whatever reason, Kelly Freas did not receive the attention given to a Vargas or a Rockwell. His collections number only five: A fan publication portfolio for Advent in 1957 with only 31 pages; The Astounding Fifties, 1971, b&w illustrations taken from Astounding; The Art of Science Fiction, 1977; A Separate Star, 1984; and Frank Kelly Freas: As He Sees It, 2000 (UK). Only a small fraction of his total artwork is contained in those monographs or portfolios...it will take years to catalogue and identify the rest. You can beat its already under way.

Photo credit: (unknown to me...if you know, please send along.)

BOOK & ARTWORK LISTING: My work in progress here.

OBITUARY: NY Times (Douglas Martin), and others.

ON-LINE: Kelly Freas Web Site

WWII DATA: Army SN 35610871, Francis Kelly Freas. Enlisted Columbus, OH, on Oct 27, 1942. Pvt. Born 1922 in New York. White. 4 years high school. Single.

George C. Willick, 514 East Street, Madison, IN 47250