Paul Calle was an American artist who was best known for the designs he created for postage stamps, including 40 that were released by the
United States Postal Service, and others for stamps issued by the
Federated States of Micronesia, the
Marshall Islands,
Sweden and the
United Nations. The sole artist hired by
NASA to cover the
Apollo 11 astronauts up close, Calle designed the 10-cent stamp that commemorated the first manned moon landing; it depicted an astronaut stepping onto the moon from the lunar module, with the Earth visible over the moon's horizon.
( March 3, 1928 – December 30, 2010)
Calle was born on March 3, 1928, in the
Manhattan borough of
New York City and earned his undergraduate degree from
Pratt Institute. He served in the
United States Army during the
Korean War, doing illustration work. Returning to the United States, Calle's early career included designing magazine covers for
The Saturday Evening Post as well as for a series of
science fiction publications.
[1]In 1962, Calle was among the first group selected to participate in the
NASA Art Program. Calle contributed a pair of complementary five-cent stamps issued in 1967 as part of the Accomplishments in Space Commemorative Issue, with the right stamp showing the
Gemini 4 space capsule with the Earth's horizon as a backdrop, while the left stamp showed astronaut
Ed White making the first American
spacewalk.
[2][1] His best-known stamp was designed to mark the first manned moon landing and was issued in September 1969, showing an astronaut stepping out onto the surface of the moon.
[1] The Apollo 11 crew carried with them a die proof of Calle's moon-landing stamp, which was
hand canceled by the astronauts while on the mission.
[1][3] Calle had been given exclusive access to be with the astronauts on July 16, 1969, while they made their final preparations for the Apollo 11 mission.
[1] The sketches he made based on his experiences that day have been displayed at the
National Air and Space Museum and at the
National Gallery of Art.
[4] Together with his son Chris, Calle returned to the subject of space exploration with a pair of stamps issued in 1994 in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and the first manned moon landing.
[1]Calle produced dozens of postage stamp designs, featuring such individuals as
Douglas MacArthur and
Robert Frost. He also produced Western-themed artworks that have been shown at the
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, as well as a 1981 stamp honoring
Frederic Remington.
[1] His depictions of the American West have been included in the collections of the
Gilcrease Museum in
Tulsa, Oklahoma and at the
Booth Western Art Museum in
Cartersville, Georgia.
[4]After doctors discovered that his
melanoma had metastasized, he was placed on intravenous
Ipilimumab, an experimental treatment being tested by
Bristol-Myers Squibb that is meant to improve the response by the
immune system to fight cancer. An initial course of treatment with the test drug combined with
chemotherapy left no trace of the cancer in his body.
[5] A resident of
Stamford, Connecticut, Calle died there at the age of 82 on December 30, 2010, of melanoma. He was survived by a daughter, two sons and six grandchildren. His wife Olga died in 2003; they had been married for more than 50 years.
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