Robert F. Harnett

HARNETT, Robert F., 82, artist and teacher, died May 19, 2007, after a short illness at Strong Hospital, Rochester, N.Y. Born in Malone to the late Owen and Katherine (McGivney) Harnett December 18, 1924, Robert grew up in Plattsburgh, N.Y. He served in the U.S. Army during the occupation of Japan after World War II. He then attended Grand Central Art School in Manhattan, N.Y., and graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he met his late wife, Deborah (McMahon). A freelance artist, his paintings were reproduced in the hundreds of thousands and hang in homes all over the United States and around the world. He also taught commercial art in the Board of Cooperative Educational Services program in Long Island, N.Y. For the last 10 years, he had lived in Lake Placid, Fla., where he played golf at the Crystal Creek Country Club, made lots of new friends and discovered the joys of a new artist' s tool: the computer. He is survived by his children, Lynn of Marathon, Fla., Michael of South Orange, N.J., Sean of Penfield, N.Y., and Brian of Grahamsville, N.Y.; their spouses; three grandchildren; two brothers, William of Cape Canaveral, Fla., and James of Manhattan, N.Y.; and one sister, Dorothy Miller of Plattsburgh. Robert' s funeral Mass will be celebrated Wednesday, May 23, 2007, at St. Jerome' s Church in East Rochester, N.Y. Arrangements are by Harloff Funeral Home, (585) 586-5948.