Alan Tompkins

TOMPKINS, Alan Alan Tompkins, a distinguished painter, illustrator and muralist whose work was exhibited widely died on Thursday, (November 22, 2007) at the age of 100. A long time Bloomfield resident, Tompkins also served as Director of the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford and designed the University seal. This past summer he exhibited his paintings at the University of Hartford's Silpe Gallery to celebrate his 100th birthday, the Hartford Art School's 130th anniversary and the University of Hartford's 50th anniversary. Many of these works had been completed during the last 20 years, a sign of his continued passion for painting. Tompkins was born in New Rochelle, NY, in 1907, the son of Edward DeVoe Tompkins, a civil engineer who worked for the City of New York, and Maude Peck, a teacher and school administrator. Tompkins studied art history and graduated from Columbia University in 1929; he graduated with a second degree in 1933 from the Yale Art School, where he studied mural painting. Alan Tompkins taught at the John Herron Art School, Cooper Union and Columbia. He worked as a book illustrator and industrial designer. During the Depression years he won four national art competitions that resulted in commissions from the Works Progress Administration to create public works of art. The murals that he painted in those years can still be seen in post offices in North Carolina and Indiana. Tompkins joined the Hartford Art School in the 1950s becoming its director in 1957. He played a pivotal role in the formation of the University of Hartford when the Art School merged with the original Hillyer College and the Hartt College of Music. He served as director for 12 years and then taught art history until his retirement in 1974. Alan Tompkins was predeceased by his wife Florence; and very shortly thereafter by his two children Cathie Sizer and Alan Tompkins. He leaves six grandchildren, Deborah Sheehan, Marshfield, MA, Nancy Tompkins, San Francisco, CA, Edward Tompkins, Jackson, WY, Charles Tompkins, Seattle, WA, Laura Sizer, Florence, MA, Michael Sizer, Washington, DC; and eight great grandchildren. A memorial service for Alan Tompkins will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, January 19, at Duncaster, the retirement community in Bloomfield where he lived since the early 1990s. The Reverand Erl G. Purnell, rector of Old St. Andrews Church in Bloomfield, will officiate. The service will be followed by a reception, which will feature an exhibit of Mr. Tompkins' work, one that the artist himself worked on just before he died. Contributions in Alan Tompkins' memory can be made to: either the Dean's Discretionary Fund, Hartford Art School, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06117, or the Duncaster Foundation Education Fund, Attention: Joan Froscio, 20 Loeffler Road, Bloomfield. Tompkins described the role of the painter in a book about his work, Alan Tompkins Painter, by Linda Powers Tomasso: "The world passes before my eyes. I grope for meanings, importances that can be expressed in art. Sometimes the meanings have only a graphic life, not a verbal life. That's okay – they do not need a verbal life – a verbal existence. Let them come, these revelations, as they will. But – capture them! That is the function of the painter.