Designer of Bear on California’s Flag Dies at 72
Donald Greame Kelley, the artist and editor who designed the bear that adorns the California flag, has died at the age of 72.
Kelley, who was commissioned in 1953 by the Legislature to create an authentic portrayal of the California grizzly, died at his San Rafael home Sunday of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
His design ended a century-long search for a representative bear. Critics had complained that earlier flags showed bears that looked more like rhinoceroses or pigs.
A native of San Jose, Kelley received a degree in art from the University of California at Berkeley in 1935.
He went to New York, where he drew maps for Rand McNally and sketched animals for the New York Zoological Society. During World War II, he prepared air navigation charts of the Pacific islands for the Navy.
After the war, he returned to California where he became art director of Pacific Discovery, the magazine of the California Academy of Sciences.
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