Rolf Westphal

Rolf Werner Westphal, seventy years old, of International Falls Minnesota passed away on February 10 at his home in Spring Hill Florida. He was born in 1945 in the small town of Breloh in the Lüneburg Heath area of Northern Germany. Rolf was the son of Werner and Erica Westphal. Rolf grew up in the remote northern lake country of International Falls, Minnesota. After studying at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, Rolf went on to receive a B.F.A. at Kansas City Art Institute and to earn an M.F.A. from the distinguished Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. A man of giant inspiration and profound creative intelligence, Rolf was a heroic international artist, devoted professor, loving father, and dear friend and colleague to many. His strong, poetic artworks succeed him and can be viewed in such diverse places as Turkey, Finland, Poland, and British Columbia, as well as many cities throughout the United States. He is survived by his first wife and lifetime friend Susan Schug and her family, their only son Ahti Rolf Westphal, and Ahti's wife Michelle Lee Butterfield. Others include Susan's husband, Stanley Schug and his children, particularly Richart Schug, who grew up loving Rolf as a cherished uncle. Rolf and his family built a cabin and outbuildings on the northern shore of Keyes Island on Rainy Lake. For three decades this extraordinary place has become a stronghold where family, friends, students, and fellow artists, sometimes from such far reaching lands as Thailand and Siberia, would gather to share their artistic visions and take respite in the natural world. Rolf will be deeply and sorely missed by all who knew him.