Francis Whitaker died on October...
Illustration
Francis Whitaker died on October 23, 1999, at the age of 92 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Francis was a blacksmith, and many people credit him with saving his once dying art.
After World War II, when the acetylene torch and the arc welder threatened to eliminate the need for craftsmen to work iron, Mr. Whitaker feared that this art would soon become extinct. But by 1976, at a conference of the young Artist-Blacksmith Association of North American, Mr. Whitaker met a large number of young blacksmiths who were eager to learn the long forgotten techniques of working iron. So Francis started the Francis Whitaker Blacksmith Schools in Colorado and North Carolina.
"If it wasn't for Frank, nobody would be doing this as a profession or even as a token craft," says Dorothy Stiegler, a blacksmith in Carmel, California.
Francis Whitaker kept his art alive. He kept the good things that had been entrusted to him. (From an article by Douglas Martin in The New York Times, October 31, 1999.)
After World War II, when the acetylene torch and the arc welder threatened to eliminate the need for craftsmen to work iron, Mr. Whitaker feared that this art would soon become extinct. But by 1976, at a conference of the young Artist-Blacksmith Association of North American, Mr. Whitaker met a large number of young blacksmiths who were eager to learn the long forgotten techniques of working iron. So Francis started the Francis Whitaker Blacksmith Schools in Colorado and North Carolina.
"If it wasn't for Frank, nobody would be doing this as a profession or even as a token craft," says Dorothy Stiegler, a blacksmith in Carmel, California.
Francis Whitaker kept his art alive. He kept the good things that had been entrusted to him. (From an article by Douglas Martin in The New York Times, October 31, 1999.)
