Long time NCS and AAEC member Jim Orton has passed away at the age of 81. Jim, for a time, did editorial cartoons for Roll Call. According to the obituary, Jim had a varied career.
He was born June 11, 1930, in Oneida, NY, and was high school valedictorian in 1947. He later received his B.A. degree from Cornell University in 1952 and his M.A. degree and certificate of Russian Institute from Columbia University in 1954. Jim also took a course for his Ph.D. in mathematical statistics at American University in 1956. He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1952. Jim worked in software engineering and management and software quality management at Westinghouse from 1968 to 1992.
Roy Delgado remembers Jim for his trip to Russia with other cartoonists such as Karl Hubenthal to meet with Russian cartoonists about the differences between editorial cartooning in the US and the Soviet Union.
Jim and Mary Lou were great friends to me and Arlene all during the years we were members together in the AAEC. He was a quiet, unassuming guy who in the latter years of his career, produced editorial cartoons for a computer publication. His formal training was as a statistician and he was a keen observer of the political scene. I have yet to meet anybody who read more on a daily basis about happenings in the world around us.
Jim was one of the truly “good guys” in cartooning. I’m hoping he’s now someplace with no editors, no deadlines, and hordes of adoring cartoon fans.
I first met Jim at The Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. back around 1965 where we both studied anatomy. We had a lot in common, had long conversations about philosophy. We would have a beer or a coffee after art classes . . . I remember at Walker’s Hippie coffee shop on K Street. Someone shot at Walker. it was a set-up to gain noteriety for his Hippie Coffee Shop. both of his daughters Lex and Fer both worked for me in my Sign/Graphics firm, Roy Delgado Signs in Falls Church, VA. around ’75/76. I miss Jim.