Paul Calle

Paul Calle, 82, father of Waco resident, Claudia Calle Beal, died Dec. 30, 2010, at the Rosenthal Hospice Residence in Stamford, Conn. The cause was melanoma. Calle was one of the first artists in the NASA Art Program, established in 1962, to record American space exploration. His drawings, sketches and paintings of the space program are on exhibit in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and the National Gallery. Calle designed the First Man on the Moon postage stamp, one of over 50 postage stamps he designed during his career. In the mid-1970s, Calle began to paint and draw the historic American West of the 1800s. He was particularly interested in depicting the lives of the mountain men of the fur trade era and many of his drawings and paintings reflect that subject. Reflecting on this seemingly dramatic shift in subject matter, Calle said "I have always likened the image of the mountain man John Colter, his moccasin clad foot first steeping on the newly fallen snow of Yellowstone Valley, to the Moon boot of Neil Armstrong, stepping in the dust of the Moon's surface at the Sea of Tranquility...two worlds apart yet each at the edge of a new frontier..." Paul was predeceased by his beloved wife, Olga. He is survived by his daughter, Claudia Calle Beal and her husband, Ron Beal, of Waco; two sons, Paul Peter Calle and his wife, Ellen, of Danbury, Conn., and Christopher Calle and his wife, Jacqueline, of Ridgefield, Conn.; and six grandchildren, including Nathaniel Paul Beal of Iowa City, Iowa. Donations in Paul's memory may be made to SmileTrain, PO Box 96231, Washington, D.C. 20090 or Meals & Wheels P.O. Box 85, Waco, TX 76703. March 3, 1928 - December 30, 2010 Sign the Guest Book at www.wacotrib.com