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For Immediate Release | |||||
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Lake Forest, Ill –The late Pulitzer-Prize winning political cartoonist and author Herbert L. Block, is being honored by his alma mater, Lake Forest College, with a perpetual endowed scholarship set up in his memory by long-time friend Doree Lovell of Washington D.C.. Ms. Lovell has timed the announcement of the Herbert L. Block (HERBLOCK) Endowed Scholarship at Lake Forest College to coincide with what would have been Block’s 93rd birthday on October 13, 2002. Once dubbed "the foremost editorial cartoonist in the U.S.," by Time magazine, Block honed his artistic and intellectual skills for two years at Lake Forest College in Illinois, where he majored in English and political science. Herblock, as he was known professionally, drew editorial cartoons for Lake Forest’s student newspaper The Stentor and played key roles in developing the art work for three Forester yearbooks, published in 1928, 1929, and 1930. During an interview in 1969 for the Alumni Quarterly, Block stated that "a school publication is the greatest place in the world to begin to learn how to draw or write for the public, to see how pictures reproduce in print and how people react to what you have to say." At Lake Forest Block didn’t only learn to draw, his contributions to the 1930 Forester included six caricatures of professors who were important to him, for as he acknowledged, "One of the great things about Lake Forest was that the professors would meet with you and talk with you individually." One of those pictured was David Maynard, a professor in Block’s major of political science, who got the young man "interested in international affairs, in the role of the United States throughout the world….Maynard and I got to talking about politics more and more on an informal basis…." In his two years at Lake Forest, this Chicago-North-Shore-raised youth had been introduced to a much wider world by his teachers and had tested his skills portraying the campus scene. Lured by a place at the Chicago Daily News, he departed from the ivy-covered cluster of buildings. But he stayed in touch for nearly two-thirds of a century. In the late 1930s Block drew a cartoon of an over-stuffed Reid Library, for the College’s library expansion campaign. In 1957 he received an honorary degree from the College and in 1962 was given honorary membership in the local Phi Beta Kappa chapter. One bit of Lake Forest that Herblock carried with him was the little man, traceable to the 1930 Forester figure of a debater shouting his head off, who evolved into the cartoon representation, familiar to those who know his work, of "the vast multitude of folks that Herblock attempts… to push into some sort of involvement with the world." For Herblock himself as he described it, this engagement began at Lake Forest, especially in those conversations with Professor David Maynard. "We are very grateful to Ms. Lovell for her generous gift. Building on the foundation that Herb Block left, the College is pleased to be able to offer support to students with an interest in political cartoons and an understanding of the importance of chronicling serious economic, political, and social issues in a humorous and artistic way," says Stephen Schutt, president of the College. "This endowed scholarship will honor the memory of Herb Block in perpetuity while providing much needed scholarship support." Lake Forest College is a private liberal arts institution located 30 miles north of downtown Chicago. The College has 1,300 students representing 45 states and 43 other countries.
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