David Wm. Cale was born on April 8, 1931 in Wichita, Kansas to Herbert William Cale and Hilda Irene Plant. He served in the U.S. Navy in Guam, the Philippines and Japan from 1950 to 1954. After his discharge, Mr. Cale attended the University of Wichita in Kansas where, in 1960, he obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree Cum Laude, majoring in drawing and painting. During this time he and fellow artists established Bottega Gallery, a studio and salon widely acknowledged as an incubator for major Kansas visual artists working in the modern style.
From 1962 through 1965, he attended Wichita State University, earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and printmaking. Mr. Cale was employed as an illustrator at Boeing Aircraft and served as acting director of the Art Division at the Institute of Logopedics. The school served autistic and special needs students and is now known as The Heartspring School.
Mr. Cale married Gertrude Jen Shunatona in 1961 and in 1965 moved his young family to Amarillo, Texas where he enjoyed a long and fulfilling career as a Professor of Art at Amarillo College; teaching painting, two-dimensional design and drawing. For several years, Cale was a member of Colony Katherine; an artist’s collective that produced works from a studio perched on the rim of Palo Duro Canyon. He developed a life-long admiration for the raw and beautiful High Plains landscape, producing a series of canyon-inspired drawings and watercolors created during numerous hikes and day-trips. Cale, with his wife Jen, who passed away December 5, 2006, started the Native American association “N.A.B.C.A.P.S.” and served as “High Sycamore” for the groups high-spirited meetings.
After his retirement from A.C. in 1993, he challenged himself to rediscover and refine many of the techniques he enjoyed passing on to his students over the 28 years of his teaching career. Cale’s works have been shown in galleries around the world and have become part of numerous public and private collections, including The Permanent Print and Drawing Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, England), The Royal Collection, (Buckingham Palace), The School of Art at the University of Manitoba (Canada), the David E. and Vivian Bernard Collection, The Wichita (Kansas) Museum of Art, The Little Rock (Arkansas) Art Association, Wichita (Kansas) State University, Amarillo (Texas) College, The University of Minnesota at Morris and Western New Mexico University at Silver City, among others.
Mr. Cale is survived by his brother Roger Cale, of Fontana, California, daughter Kateri Cale of Dallas, Texas; daughter Jen Renee Cale of Amarillo, Texas, son Charles Cale of Austin, Texas and three grandsons; Travis, Cale and Bennett of Amarillo, Texas.
The family requests that memorials be made to: Partners in Palo Duro Canyon Foundation, 11450 Park Road 5, Canyon Texas 79015. The foundation exists to support the upkeep of the canyon.