Francis Allen Sprout

1940 - 2017

Francis Allen Sprout

Vero Beach, FL

Artist Francis Allen Sprout (77) of Vero Beach, Florida passed away November 2, at Indian River Medical Center having suffered a massive heart attack.

He was born an only child in Tucson, Arizona in March of 1940, and attended Tucson High School and studied studio art and art education at the University of Arizona (1960s). During his high school and college years he also served in the Arizona National Guard, attending Officer Candidate School where he was promoted to rank of Lieutenant, and developed a passion for skydiving. After graduating college, Francis taught drawing, painting, and sculpture at high schools in Tucson and Santee California. He entered the visual art program at University of California, San Diego in 1970 as a Ford Foundation Fellow and graduated with an MFA in 1972. He taught at the University of Denver from 1972-1974 and in 1973 Francis was selected to represent Colorado in the 74th Western Annual at the Denver Art Museum. Thereafter he taught at Metropolitan State College in Denver, where he was awarded Tenure in 1981, and exhibited and lectured throughout Colorado.

While committed to studio work, Francis long had an interest in Art History as well, thus in 1984, he took a sabbatical leave and enrolled in the African Studies Program at the University of California, Los Angeles where he met his wife-to-be Lucinda (Cindy) Gedeon. He subsequently receive his MA in African Studies from UCLA in 1990. In 1987 he returned to Arizona as an adjunct professor at the west campus of Arizona State University and in 1991 the Gedeon-Sprouts moved to New York where Francis established a studio in Port Chester. In addition to studio production, he taught art and art history at Purchase College, Manhattanville College, and Pratt Institute of Art.

In 2004 they moved to Vero Beach where his studio work and teaching continued. For many years Francis was represented in Vero Beach by the Admiralty Gallery. He was passionate about teaching and continued offering classes at IRSC and then at the Museum Art School of the Vero Beach Museum of Art until May of this year.

Throughout this long career, he exhibited widely and his work is represented in the collections of the Arizona State University Museum of Art, the Neuberger Museum of Art as well as many private and corporate collections, including Johnson Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, Johns Manville Corporation, Atlanta, Georgia and Pfizer Learning Center, Rye Brook, New York.

Francis was predeceased by his mother Pearl Mae Greene, and his maternal grandmother and step-grandfather, Bernardine and George Sprout, who raised him.

He is survived by his devoted wife Cindy, adored four-legged Addison, his close cousin Darnell Greene, his daughter Lauren and his three grandchildren Stacey, Josh and Jason, in addition to a number of very special new-found cousins and extended family of in-laws.

A celebration of life will be held at the Vero Beach Museum of Art on Sunday November 12 at 3 pm.

In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made in his memory to the Vero Beach Museum of Art, 3001 Riverside Park Drive, Vero Beach, Florida 32967.