Grady Curtis Myers – artist, decorated combat veteran, car aficionado, storyteller and most of all loving father – died July 30, 2011, in Boise, Idaho. He was 61.
Grady was born Oct. 6, 1949, in Roswell, New Mexico. He was the son of O.V. “Zeke” Myers and Mary Thornton Myers. He grew up in an Air Force family, and moved frequently as a child. The family eventually settled in Boise, where Grady graduated from Borah High School in 1967. He served with the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division during the Vietnam War, and was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds suffered during a 1969 ambush in Plei Trap Valley. Grady attended Boise State College and the Burnley School for Professional Art in Seattle. He went on to a career as a newspaper artist with The Idaho Statesman in Boise and The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington. He later worked as a graphic information specialist for the Idaho Panhandle National Forests in Coeur d’Alene. In addition to being published in his memoir, "Boocoo Dinky Dow," his Vietnam-related art is included in the collection of the National Veterans Art Museum. His artistic accomplishments ranged from decorations on his squad’s combat helmets to a tourist map of Boise; from interpretive signs along North Idaho’s Route of the Hiawatha trail to T-shirts for the Bare Buns Fun Run. |
Julie Titone is a professional writer who was married to Grady Myers from 1981 to 1991. Her articles and photographs have appeared in regional, national and international publications; her essays have been published in three college textbooks and three literary collections. Her novel, "Deadline Affairs," was recorded by Books in Motion. She was recipient of a Kiplinger Fellowship in Public Affairs Journalism at Ohio State University and a Ford Motor Co. Environmental Reporting Fellowship from the International Center for Journalists. Write to her here.
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