M. Doug Walton, “Jubilee Encounters,” 2023
The Class of 1960 included exceptionally talented artists. Some of them aspired to be professional artists, but most started out in other directions. During January 2024, the Class of 1960 website will share stories by or about prominent artists in our class.
Schedule for the Artists’ Stories and Samples of Their Work
January 5, Fred Fairbanks (1942-1999) – Injuries sustained in a 
Turnpike car crash during the summer of 1960 left Fred a quadriplegic. At first, painting was therapeutic as he regained limited control of his hands and arms. He went on to college at the University of Minnesota, worked as a television journalist and later as a prolific artist and college art teacher. Continuing to exhibit his paintings in his adopted hometown of Bonita in the San Diego area, he became a community activist, much loved for leading community celebrations and for his philanthropy.
January 10, David Melby (1942-2014) – A professional artist and college art teacher, David specialized in landscapes that depict the wide-open spaces of Kansas and other Midwestern states. You will recognize these portraits of the land of our origins.
January 12, Richard Dolloff – Clad in leathers 
and roaring into work on his motorcycle, Richard taught art at Derby High School and produced celebrated artwork in schools and in the community. Observers tended to be surprised at first by his accomplishments due to his deformed hands and lack of fingers that resulted from his birth. Richard said, “I hate the word “can’t.” I prove that you can.’
December 15, Skip Granger ended an impressive career as a painter when other diversions captured his teenaged attention. He still loves art, collects it, and displays it in his home. His own paintings join the collection he gathered in traveling the world.
January 19, Doug Walton – Doug’s family 
moved from Oklahoma to Wichita when he was a young teenager, so his inability to speak could be treated at the Institute of Logopedics. He began to talk fluently at age 16 as a student at East High. Doug trained and practiced as an architect. While teaching college architecture students, he was inspired to focus on painting. He has since made a career of painting and teaching painting workshops in more than a dozen countries on five continents.
January 24, Mary (Mert) Lancaster Curtis – Mert’s medium is fabric, and she practices her artistry by creating quilts. Her formidable talent has earned many blue ribbons, including Best of Show Quilt last summer at the 2023 Stafford County Fair.
January 25, Janice Collins Bailey – Another quilter, Janice specializes in traditional patterns. Joining artistry with philanthropy, Janice works with a quilting society that produces about 600 quilts per year for needy families in the Wichita area. Her story explains both the very challenging craftsmanship and the artistry involved in quilt-making.
January 26, Glenna Stearman Park – Like 
Doug Walton, Glenna is an extraordinarily prolific artist who has exhibited her work and taught students in numerous international settings. Uniquely, Glenna works in a wide variety of media, including painting, sculpture, theater, performance art, and mash-ups that mix all of the above and more. She continues to create art, sometimes using it therapeutically during and after medical crises.
Barbara Hammond – Encouraged by elementary school teach
ers, Barb developed her drawing skills and took art lessons on Saturdays at the Wichita Art Association. She does not count herself among the fine artists featured in the stories listed above, but her graphics and cleverly illustrated stories and cartoons have been very popular with visitors to this website. She continued to take art classes into retirement, including stone carvins.
Charles Howard – An award-winning architect, Charlie is dealing with health issues and not available to consult with us at the moment. We are hoping that he will share photos of some of his buildings and more about his own career.
Did East High School Help Produce These Artists?
Well, maybe, at least some of them, but encouraging artistry of all kinds was part of Wichita’s culture. David Melby and Richard Dolloff both commented on the encouragement for their artwork that they received in school. Barbara Hammond recalled the influence of Mrs. Maatsch, her 5th and 6th grade teacher at Adams School. “As you can see from the mural above us in the class photo, our Mrs. Maatsch must have liked art herself because she provided plenty of opportunities for us to draw. Several times throughout the school year she hung up a brown paper banner and many of us painted it. She taught us how to draw in perspective and bits about human anatomy, like proportion and how joints like knees and elbows work. You can see evidence of that in the mural scenes. Those skills have served me well.” (Below, Mrs. Lona Maatsch’s 5th grade in 1953. Look closely for many familiar faces)
According to Barb, Charles Howard already knew that he wanted to become an architect. Their teacher encouraged Barb and Charles to draw. They both participated enthusiastically in painting the murals and in art classes. Mrs. Maatsch steered Barb into Saturday classes at the Wichita Art Association. (Below, one of the murals students painted in 1953 by Mrs. Maatsch’s 5th graders.)
East High’s Art Department enrolled 550 students in one or more of five courses, Commercial Art, Freehand Drawing, Basic Art, Ceramics, and Crafts. Below, Larry McCreight and Marcia Benjamin concentrate on getting the proportions perfect as they sketch a model in their art class.
The East High Art Club counted 35 student members, who 
created artwork for competition each year, with winning creations hanging in the high school hallways. The Art Club’s president in 1960, Barb Hammond, remembers that the club sponsored a booth at Carnival for Cash. (Above, Judy Poe holds a winning painting.)
Whatever the influences before they left high school and, usually, Wichita, these artists in the Class of 1960 matured and evolved into exceptional talents.
Editor’s Note: We hope you will enjoy reading these stories and seeing examples of the artists’ creations. Please send along names of Class of 1960 artists not included here, so we can learn more about them and add their stories.
Galleries
Diane Rusch Zinn has assembled galleries devoted to the work of some of our artists. Click on the Doug Walton link and enjoy browsing their beautiful creations. Scroll down to view each collection and click to enlarge any image.
- M. Doug Walton Paintings
- David Melby Landscapes
- Skip Granger Paintings
- Barbara Hammond Graphics
- Quilts
Stories on this website provide commentary on each of the galleries. Use the search icon, the magnifying glass, at the top of each page and type in the name to find these stories.
