John Everett Benson (born 1939), known as Fud, is an American calligrapher, stonecarver and typeface designer who has created inscriptions for monuments including the John F. Kennedy memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC.

Work

John Everett Benson was born in Newport, Rhode Island. He began working for his father, John Howard Benson, at the age of fifteen at The John Stevens Shop. He studied sculpture at Rhode Island School of Design. In 1964, Benson and John Hegnauer were commissioned to design and carve the inscriptions on the John F. Kennedy memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. In Rhode Island, Benson carved a number of inscriptions at the University of Rhode Island's Robert L. Carothers Library and Learning Commons. JFK grave

He has designed and carved gravestones for Tennessee Williams, Lillian Hellman, and

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...

. He has created monumental architectural inscriptions for famous buildings such as the Prudential Center in Boston, the

, the Dallas Museum of Art, Rockefeller Center, Chicago Mercantile Exchange Center, and the Armand Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles. He lettered the date stones of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC, the

Civil Rights Memorial The Civil Rights Memorial is an American memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, created by Maya Lin. The names of 41 people are inscribed on the granite fountain as martyrs who were killed in the civil rights movement. The memorial is sponsored by t ...

in Montgomery, Alabama, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, DC and the Federal Courthouse in Boston. He designed the National Geographic Society headquarters lintel, West Point's MacArthur Monument, and the reverse of a medal for the National Gallery of Art. He has drawn various photo-typefaces for architectural applications and a titling typeface, called Aardvark, for The Font Bureau in Boston, '' Alexa'', ''Balzano'', and ''Caliban''. In 1993, he left the direction of The John Stevens Shop to his son, Nicholas "Nick" Benson and returned to sculpting full-time. Benson is currently doing portrait and figurative work in clay and bronze at his studio in

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...

, Rhode Island.

Awards

Frederic W. Goudy Award The Frederic W. Goudy Award & Lecture were established in 1969 by funds donated to Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) by the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust in memory of her late husband, Melbert Cary, Melbert B. Cary, Jr., a typographer, ...

, 2019

References

External links

''Final Marks, The Art of the Carved Letter''
(1979), by Frank Muhly, Jr., Peter O'Neill
The John Stevens Shop
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, John 1939 births Living people American typographers and type designers Artists from Newport, Rhode Island Rhode Island School of Design alumni Stone carvers