In Memoriam - Bob Hines
Bob Hines
1912-1994
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Born and raised in Ohio, Robert W. Hines never took a formal art course after high
school. He began as a staff artist for the Ohio Division of Conservation and Natural
Resources during the Great Depression. In 1948 he accepted employment as an artist
with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, chagrined to find that a female biologist
named Rachel Carson was his supervisor. Carson and Hines developed a congenial working
relationship that evolved into a loyal friendship and an important professional
collaboration.
Carson asked Hines to illustrate the third book in her trilogy on the ocean, The
Edge of the Sea, a study of sea life along the Atlantic coast. Together they traveled
from Maine to the Florida Keys. Hines learned first hand about Carson’s reverence
for life. After Carson collected an animal and Hines drew it, she insisted that
the creature be returned to the same location from whence it came.
Hines’s pencil drawings immensley enhanced the book when it was published in 1955.
N. J. Berrill’s review in the Saturday Review concluded: "The Edge of the Sea becomes
the product of two naturalists working in close cooperation, each one scientifically
trained and each an artist, the one with a pen and the other with a pencil. Together
they take us on a good journey."
Hines served as one of the six honorary pall bearers at Rachel Carson’s funeral
in at the Washington National Cathedral in 1964. Prior to his retirement from the
FWS in 1981, Hines was designated "National Wildlife Artist", the only person ever
granted that distinction. His last major commission was the pencil drawings for
the 50th anniversary edition of Carson’s Under the Sea-Wind, reprinted in 1991.
Hines died in Arlington, Virginia, three years later. His remains were returned
to his native Ohio.
(Contributed by John D. Juriga, June 2010)