Leslie Fred Harman, Fred Charles Harman Ii

Place: St. Joseph

Born: 1902

Death: 1982

Biography:

Fred Harman (February 9, 1902 - January 2, 1982) was an American cartoonist, best known for his popular Red Ryder comic strip, which he drew for 25 years, reaching 40 million readers through 750 newspapers. He was self-taught and his eye for dramatic perspective, the authentic details he put into all of his work, is unmatched. Born Leslie Fred Harman, he worked as a pressman’s helper at The Kansas City Star, where he came in contact with the newspaper's art staff. When he was 20 years old, he was employed at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, working with Walt Disney as an animator. Harman and Disney partnered to form their own company but went broke within a year. Harman then went back to Colorado. Harman's brother, Hugh Harman, was also an animator at Disney's Kansas City studio. Among other honors, Harman was one of only 75 white men in history to be adopted into the Navajo Nation. In 1958, he received the Sertoma Award as Colorado's Outstanding Citizen. Harman was one of the original 1965 members of the Cowboy Artists of America, along with Joe Beeler, Charlie Dye, John Hampton, and George Phippen; and Harman's paintings were included in the first annual exhibition of the Cowboy Artists of America on September 9, 1966, at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.