1. Jack Banham Coggins was an artist, author, and illustrator.
33 Facts About Jack Coggins
1. 2.
Jack Coggins is known in the United States for his oil paintings, which focused predominantly on marine subjects.
3.
Jack Coggins is known for his books on space travel, which were both authored and illustrated by Coggins.
4.
Besides his own works, Coggins provided illustrations for advertisements and magazine covers and articles.
5.
Jack Coggins retired in May 2001 and died at his home in Pennsylvania in January 2006.
6.
Jack Coggins was born in London, England on July 10,1911, the only child of Ethel May and Sydney George Jack Coggins.
7.
Sydney Coggins was Regimental Corporal Major of the First Regiment of Life Guards, the part of the Household Cavalry responsible for guarding the British Monarch; Jack Coggins was born in his father's barracks.
8.
Jack Coggins attended the Imperial Service College, a public school preferred by army families.
9.
Alma named their home "Crestfield," which, according to Jack Coggins, meant absolutely nothing.
10.
Jack Coggins taught his wife to paint, and she had success as an artist in her own right under the name Alma Woods.
11.
Alma Jack Coggins assisted her husband in the planning, research and typing of many of his books, and he acknowledged her efforts with book dedications to her.
12.
Jack Coggins taught art classes at the Wyomissing Institute of the Arts from 1957 until 2001, despite being handicapped by the loss of his left eye due to infection after an operation.
13.
Jack Coggins was a signature member and Master Pastelist of the Pastel Society of America, a Fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists, a member of the American Ordnance Association, the US Naval Institute, and an adviser to the boards of the Philadelphia Maritime Museum and the Reading Public Museum.
14.
Jack Coggins died at his home in Berks County, Pennsylvania at the age of 94 and willed his body to medical science.
15.
Jack and Alma Coggins had no children and were survived by several nieces and nephews.
16.
Jack Coggins was paid $250 for that work, a large sum at the time, which paid his rent for five months.
17.
Jack Coggins received advertising commissions from such corporations including Elco, Koppers, US Steel, and Westinghouse.
18.
Jack Coggins received commissions from the US War Department for aircraft recognition charts, and he was intrigued to later find these charts used during his army basic training.
19.
Jack Coggins was called up for Army service, and enlisted on April 8,1943.
20.
Jack Coggins was pulled from basic training at Fort Eustis, Virginia before he could complete it to work as an illustrator for YANK magazine.
21.
Jack Coggins was originally introduced to the Commanding Officer and Editor of YANK, Colonel Franklin Forsberg, by Fletcher Pratt.
22.
On May 20,1943, Jack Coggins commenced work at the head office of YANK in New York, where he worked until his departure for Britain.
23.
Jack Coggins became a naturalized citizen of the United States on August 19,1943.
24.
Jack Coggins served as an artist for British YANK in London until August 2,1945, and was discharged from the US Army on November 3,1945.
25.
Jack Coggins spent time on a US PT boat patrolling the beaches and made a trip into Brittany with an armored column.
26.
Jack Coggins was "bugged" by the fact that the Liberty Ship to which he had been assigned for the Normandy Landings got to Utah Beach only on D-Day plus one.
27.
Jack Coggins saw lively action, but bemoaned missing the big show.
28.
Jack Coggins taught watercolor painting there from 1948 to 1952.
29.
In New York, as a result of his friendship with Fletcher Pratt, Coggins was introduced to the members of the Hydra Club, where he met Judith Merril and L Ron Hubbard.
30.
Between 1941 and 1983, Jack Coggins wrote or illustrated 44 books on a wide range of marine, military, historical and educational themes.
31.
Jack Coggins relied on a realistic style that was executed in oils, for which he had a preference.
32.
Jack Coggins's work has been accepted for show by the American Watercolor Society, the Salmagundi Club, the American Artist Professional League, and the Pastel Society of America.
33.
Jack Coggins received a number of awards and accolades during his career, including the American Revolution Round Table Award in 1969, the Daniel Boone National Foundation's Americanism Award in 1985, the Mystic Maritime Gallery's Purchase Award in 1989, the International Maritime Exhibition's Rudolph Shaeffer Award from 1987 to 1990, and Berks Art Council's Pagoda Award in 1995.