ROBERT W. HINES
(1912 - 1994)

Robert W. Hines was man of great personal charm and a deceptively relaxed, almost sleepy, manner. Meeting him for the first time, one would never- suspect what a huge volume of work he produced. His studio was in his home where he worked full-time upon retiring as artist-illustrator for the Bureau of Sports Fisheries and Wildlife, Washington, D.C.

Bob Hines was born in Columbus, Ohio on February 6, 1912. He attended Clintonville Elementary School until the family moved to Fremont, Ohio in 1921. There he went to Otis and Stamm Elementary Schools, and Fremont Ross High School from which he graduated in 1926.

As a boy, he hiked, fished, and camped in the woods and along the Sandusky River near Fremont. He had a large backyard zoo where at one time or another he made pets of pheasants, quail, crows (one albino), raccoons, opossums, woodchucks, squirrels, moles, mallards, widgeon, great horned and snowy owls, gulls, pigeons, chickens, dogs, cats, snakes, turtles, and several aquariums of fish.

He joined the Boy Scouts when he was 12 years old, and became an Eagle Scout with Silver Palm. Later he was a nature instructor in three Scout camps and counselor for most of the nature merit badges.

During the depression he worked at various jobs in restaurants, in a drop-forging plant, and on road-construction crews. He taught himself how to mount birds and animals and operated a small taxidermy shop for a while; when he was forced by illness to slow down, he turned to his former avocations of drawing and painting.

Early in 1939 Bob Hines became Staff Artist for the Ohio Division of Conservation in Columbus, Ohio. Just before he began work there, he learned that the job would require some specialized work in creating oil paintings of wildlife habitat. He promptly went for help to his former high school art teacher, Miss Mary Williams, and she gave him a four-day refresher course that got him off to a good start on his new job.

In July 1948, Mr. Hines was asked by Frank Dufresne, then Chief of Information, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to come to Washington as an Artist-Illustrator. There his first supervisor was Miss Rachel Carson, who was at that time near publication of her epic The Sea Around Us.

Mr. Hines wrote and illustrated Ducks at A Distance, which was published by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife; other books he has illustrated are Wildlife in America. by Mattheissen: North America Waterfowl, by Day; Alaska's Animals and fishes, by Dufresne; The Upland Game Hunter's Bible, by Holland; Migration of Birds, by Lincoln; Bass Fishing in America, by Bauer; Crusade for Wildlife, by Arefethan; Outdoors Unlimited, Outdoor Writers Association of America; Pheasants in North America, by Allan; Honker, by McClung; Face of North America, by Farb; Waterfowl Tomorrow, and Birds in Our Lives, both Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife publications.

Three Boy Scout Merit Badge Pamphlets have been illustrated by Mr. Hines, and his work has appeared in thirteen magazines, including the New Yorker, Reader's Digest, Sports Afield, Natural History and Outdoor Life.

Mr. Hines was one of the two men who helped inaugurate the Wildlife Conservation Postage Stamp Series, and designed the first of four stamps in the series. They are Wild Turkey, Pronghorn Antelope, King Salmon (all 1956), and Whooping Crane (1957). The crane stamp was selected by a British philatelic poll as one of the ten best stamps in the world for 1957.

The drawings and paintings Mr. Hines did for the Ohio Division of Conservation and for the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife have been reproduced by conservation magazines in every state, several in Canada, and even in the Soviet Union.

Because he worked for a highly scientific organization, Mr. Hines had to be extremely accurate in his work; he traveled in all but three states, sketching, taking photographs, and gathering data for his illustrations. He served as consultant and administrator for the duck stamp contest each year, and somewhere along the line found time to paint three huge wildlife scenes (oil on canvas) that now hang as murals in the Interior Building in Washington, D.C. The Department of the Interior has recognized his ability with three Meritorious Awards.

Bob had three children: John, Nancy, and Tim. His hobbies were hunting, fishing, and photography.