Paul Calle (pronounced KAL-ee; March 3, 1928 – December 30, 2010) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

artist who was best known for the designs he created for postage stamps, including 40 that were released by the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

, and others for stamps issued by the

Federated States of Micronesia The Federated States of Micronesia (; abbreviated FSM) is an island country in Oceania. It consists of four states from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosraethat are spread across the western Pacific. Together, the states comprise a ...

, the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Internati ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

. The sole artist hired by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

to cover the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...

astronauts up close, Calle designed the 10-cent stamp that commemorated the first crewed moon landing; it depicted an astronaut stepping onto the moon from the lunar module, with the Earth visible over the moon's horizon.

Biography

Education and early career

Calle was born on March 3, 1928, in the

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

borough of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and earned his undergraduate degree from

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, doing illustration work. Returning to the United States, Calle's early career included designing magazine covers for ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...

'' as well as for a series of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

publications.Fox, Margalit
"Paul Calle, Postage Stamp Designer, Is Dead at 82"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', December 31, 2010. Accessed December 31, 2010.

Work at NASA

In 1962, Calle was among the first group selected to participate in the

NASA Art Program The NASA Art Program was established in 1962. NASA administrator, James Webb, jump-started the program by recommending artists to become involved in the agency. Artists, including Norman Rockwell, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol were commissio ...

. Calle contributed a pair of complementary five-cent stamps issued in 1967 as part of the Accomplishments in Space Commemorative Issue, with the right stamp showing the

Gemini 4 Gemini 4 (officially Gemini IV) With Gemini IV, NASA changed to Roman numerals for Gemini mission designations. was the second crewed spaceflight in NASA's Project Gemini, occurring in June 1965. It was the tenth crewed American spaceflight (inc ...

space capsule with the Earth's horizon as a backdrop, while the left stamp showed astronaut Ed White making the first American

spacewalk Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmen ...

. His best-known stamp was designed to mark the first human

moon landing A Moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2, on 13 September 1959. The United St ...

and was issued in September 1969, showing an astronaut stepping out onto the surface of the moon. The Apollo 11 crew carried with them a die proof of Calle's moon-landing stamp, which was hand canceled by the astronauts while on the mission. Calle had been given exclusive access to be with the astronauts on July 16, 1969, while they made their final preparations for the Apollo 11 mission. The sketches he made based on his experiences that day have been displayed at the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

and at 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 ...

.Staff
"Paul Calle"
''

Stamford Advocate ''The Advocate'' is a seven-day daily newspaper based in Stamford, Connecticut. The paper is owned and operated by Hearst Communications, a multinational corporate media conglomerate with $4 billion in revenues. ''The Advocate'' circulates in S ...

'', December 31, 2010. Accessed January 5, 2010. Together with his son Chris, Calle returned to the subject of space exploration with a pair of stamps issued in 1994 in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and the first human moon landing.

Works

Calle produced dozens of postage stamp designs, featuring such individuals as

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...

and

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...

. He also produced Western-themed artworks that have been shown at the

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 American West, Western and Native Americans in the United States, American Indian art works and Artifact (archaeology), ar ...

, as well as a 1981 stamp honoring

Frederic Remington Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 – December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United State ...

. His depictions of the American West have been included in the collections of the

Gilcrease Museum Gilcrease Museum, also known as the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, is a museum northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma housing the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West, as well as a gro ...

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

and at the

Booth Western Art Museum Booth Western Art Museum, located in Cartersville, Georgia, is a museum dedicated to the Western United States. It is one of only two museums of its kind in the Southeastern United States, the other being the James Museum of Western and Wildlife ...

Cartersville, Georgia Cartersville is a city in Bartow County, Georgia, United States; it is located within the northwest edge of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 23,187. Cartersville is the county seat of Bartow Coun ...

Health, later life, and death

After doctors discovered that his

melanoma Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ( ...

had metastasized, he was placed on intravenous

Ipilimumab Ipilimumab, sold under the brand name Yervoy, is a monoclonal antibody medication that works to activate the immune system by targeting CTLA-4, a protein receptor that downregulates the immune system. Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) can recognize ...

, an experimental treatment being tested by

Bristol-Myers Squibb The Bristol Myers Squibb Company (BMS) is an American multinational pharmaceutical company. Headquartered in New York City, BMS is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and consistently ranks on the ''Fortune'' 500 list of the lar ...

that is meant to improve the response by the

immune system The immune system is a network of biological processes that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, as well as cancer cells and objects such as wood splinte ...

to fight cancer. An initial course of treatment with the test drug combined with

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

left no trace of the cancer in his body.Hennessy, Christina
"Test pilots - Hope in motion: Clinical trials propel medical advances"
''

'', June 1, 2010. Accessed January 5, 2011. A resident of

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...

, Calle died there at the age of 82 on December 30, 2010, of melanoma. He was survived by a daughter, two sons and six grandchildren. His wife Olga died in 2003; they had been married for more than 50 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calle, Paul 1928 births 2010 deaths Artists from Connecticut Artists from New York City Artists of the American West Deaths from cancer in Connecticut Deaths from melanoma Artists from Stamford, Connecticut People from Manhattan Pratt Institute alumni Space artists