Henry Jaeger

Henry Jaeger

Rhinebeck - Henry Jaeger, a resident of Rhinebeck, New York for 22 years and an Iwo Jima Veteran, died on November 12, 2011, with his children at his side. His family and friends mourn the loss of such a poetic and engaging soul.

He was born March 8, 1923, in Staten Island, NY. His parents, Edward Jaeger and Elsa Warth Jaeger, moved to Denville, New Jersey, where Henry grew up. As a teenager, Jaeger studied commercial art at the Grand Central School of Art in Manhattan. When World War II began, Henry joined the Marines and was assigned to an intelligence unit in Pearl Harbor that built the relief maps of Iwo Jima. He then joined the invasion fleet as a combat artist with the Fifth Marine Division.

Jaeger landed on Iwo Jima on Day 4 of the invasion, and over the next three weeks of brutal fighting he recorded the action and its human toll in numerous sketches and watercolors, which were later included in an exhibition of combat art at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.

After the war, Jaeger attended Black Mountain College on the GI Bill, where he studied with esteemed artists Josef Albers and Jacob Lawrence. He then transferred to Bard College, where he studied with Stefan Hirsch and developed a lifelong love of the Hudson Valley.

After graduating from Bard in 1950, Henry married Claire Picken, whom he had met at Black Mountain. They moved to Paris for a year, where Jaeger studied painting with modern French master Fernand Leger. On his return to New York City, Henry exhibited work in group shows at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the National Academy of Design.

Jaeger then started a family, and a new career in marketing for Time Inc., at Sports Illustrated and Fortune magazines. He also worked for Scientific American. He continued to paint in his spare time, and also took up photography seriously. In the 1980's he pursued a master's degree in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Jaeger moved to Rhinebeck in 1989, and was involved with the Wilderstein Preservation in a number of roles, including vice president and publicity director. His paintings and combat art were seen locally in exhibits at Wilderstein, the Beekman Arms and at Brookmeade on Veterans Day, 2010. He was a member of the Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association.

A lifelong fly fisherman and outdoorsman, Henry loved the time he spent in his later years as a member of the Beaverkill Trout Club in the Catskills.

He is survived by his children, Niles Jaeger, of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY; Hilary Jaeger, of Rhinebeck, NY; and Angela Jaeger, of Brooklyn, NY. His creativity, curiosity and sense of humor will be greatly missed by his grandchildren, Lucy Matos and Alexander Jaeger.

Memorial contributions in his name may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.

A memorial service will be scheduled at a time to be announced by the family.

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