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   Following is a biographical chronology of Clement Hull derived from newspaper articles, personal recollections, family papers, and other historical records.

Chronology:


1916 Pittsburgh PA
Clem Hull is born on January 23rd to parents Walter Austin and Mary Louis (nee Purves) Hull. At the time Walter A. Hull is directing glass production for the Navy, and was previously awarded a medal for his work improving concrete for the Navy in WWI.
Source: The New Mexican

1931 Oak Park, Illinois
Clem Hull graduates from St. Edmund's School, although a subsequent newspaper article misidentifies the school as Fenwick High School (also a Catholic school in Oak Park).
Source: St. Edmund School

1933 Santa Fe
Date Approximate. Clem Hull moves to Santa Fe with his mother and father and continues studies at St. Michael's College, later to become the College of Santa Fe.
Source: The New Mexican, The University of Santa Fe (Formerly St. Michael's College)

1933-38 Santa Fe
Family oral history has it that during his early years after school, "Clem worked in some official capacity as a wildlife biologist.

1935 Santa Fe

Clem graduates high school from St.Michael's College in Santa Fe.

Source: St. Michaels College

1938-1942 Santa Fe
The Hulls are friends with prodigious author, naturalist and adventurer Earnest Thompson Seaton and are very active in the Santa Fe-Taos artist community that include world renown painters Georgia O'Keefe, Randall Davey, Raymond Jonson, leader of the Transcendental Painters Group, Eliseo Rodriguez, and artist/author Alfred Morang, with whom Clem became close friends.
Source: Mark Hull, Catherine Hackett, Robert Hull


1938 Santa Fe (Tesuque)
Hull-Santa Fe Pottery Established by Walt and son Clem, off of route 22 and old route 64. Hulls live in Tesuque, a village north of Santa Fe. Charlie Blim of Vasefinder.com reports that several pieces of Hull-Santa Fe pottery come available every year on eBay. Indeed, from 2005 through 2006, several Hull Santa Fe Pottery items were sold on eBay.
Source: The New Mexican, Mark Hull, Charlie Blim, eBay

? New York
Clement Hull exhibits with New York Society of Ceramic Art between 1938 and 1941.
Said to be an "unusual success."
Source: The New Mexican

1941 Santa Fe
Clement Hull Exhibits at New Mexico State Museum with other artists. "Surrealistic imagination" as described by Santa Fe New Mexican reporter Alfred Morang.
Source: The New Mexican

1941 Santa Fe
Clem Hull (25 yrs) and Frances Cullum (19) wed on June 28
Frances Cullum's parents: Maj. and Mrs. Grove Cullum; Fran's Aunt: Mrs. Wright. Maj. Cullum at war, not present.
Source: The New Mexican

1941 Santa Fe
Walt Leaves Hull-Santa Fe Pottery in March for War work - Clem holds down the fort with Fran.
Source: The New Mexican

1942 Santa Fe
Frances Hull gives birth to their first of seven children, Katherine Louis Alfreda Hull
Source: Hull Family Bible

1942 Santa Fe
Clem, Frances and Kit prepare to leave New Mexico - Clem called to war work in Iowa
Source: The New Mexican

1942 Santa Fe
Hull-Santa Fe Pottery Closes
Helene, Clem's sister, runs pottery until end of summer, then closes it
Source: The New Mexican

1942 Knoxville, TN
Clem reports to duty in Ames. Fran moves to Knoxville TN with Kit, residing with Walter Hull who is already engaged in war work. Fran also engages in war work in TN. Lathes uranium for Atomic Bomb.
Source: Frances Hull, Kit Hackett, War Department

1943 Ames Iowa
Clem Exhibits with Bureau of Standards
Permanent exhibit including piece by Frances Hull. Clem's sister Helene Mareau and Clem's mother, Mary, maintain residence in Tesuque New Mexico
Source: The New Mexican

1943 Ames Iowa - Ames Research Center (Department of War)
The Clem Hulls are now in the "middle west" on war work according to newspaper accounts, which may or may not have been deliberate misinformation forsake of secrecy. This was before American newspapers decided that intentionally harming the nation by revealing war secrets was ":good journalism" so the newspaper may well have voluntarily engaged in disinformation to confound the enemy.
Source: The New Mexican, David Hull

1945 Ames Iowa - Ames Research Center (Department of War)
August ­ Clem & Fran each get letters from War Department dated days after Nagasaki:

"Today the whole world knows the secret which you have helped us keep for many months. I am pleased to be able to add that the warlords of Japan now know its effects better even than we ourselves. The atomic bomb which you have helped to develop with high devotion to patriotic duty is the most devastating military weapon that any country has ever been able to turn against its enemy. No one of you has worked on the entire project or known the whole story. Each of you has done his own job and kept his own secret, and so today I speak for a grateful nation when I say congratulations and thank you all. I hope you will continue to keep the secrets you have kept so well. The need for security and for continued effort is fully as great now as it ver was. We are proud of every one of you.

s/Robert P. Patterson

ROBERT P. PATTERSON,

Under Secretary of War,

Washington, D.C."


Source: War Department (Letter mailed to all personnel associated with the Manhattan Project)

1945 Ames Iowa - Ames Research Center (Department of War)
Clem works in association with M.I.T., presumably on war work for the Manhattan Project.
Source: C.S. Gazette Telegraph, family oral history

? Los Alamos, NM
Clem said to work variously at Ames Research Center in Iowa and Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico. Government disinformation campaigns and secrecy oaths render exact location in question. Possibly worked at both.
Source: Elizabeth Shonk, David Hull

1946 Knoxville, TN
Fran Hull and children remain with Walt in Knoxville, TN while Clem relocates to Colorado Springs.
Source: Kit Hackett

1946 Colorado Springs
War work complete, Clem Hull moves to Colorado Springs and begins work at Van Briggle Pottery as it re-opens following a 3-year scale back due to the war. The Moonglo glaze is developed and Mulberry changed to Persian Rose during this time, probably aided by the expertise of Clem and Walter, who also moved to Colorado Springs upn completeion of his war work.

Clem's pottery is incised with a "C."
Source: Fred Wills, Richard Sasicki & Josie Fania

1946 Knoxville, TN
Frances Hull gives birth to Frances Elizabeth Hull
Source: Hull Family Bible

1946 Colorado Springs
Family re-unites after Clem gets settled. Walt, Clem's mother Mary, wife Fran, first daughter Kit and newborn baby "Betsy" rejoin Clem in Colorado. Walt also works for a time at Van Briggle - capacity unknown at this time.
Source: Kit Hackett, Fred Wills

1947 Colorado Springs
March 1st - Fred Wills joins Van Briggle and begins a legacy whose longevity and popular support is unmatched in the history of the pottery. Were there a Hall of Fame of American Art Pottery, Mr. Wills would be a first-round inductee by virtue of his longevity, grace of presence, generosity, humility, unique artistic skill and sense of symmetry and balance.
Source: David Hull, Van Briggle collector

"Clem had been there a while," Fred Wills said. "I came straight from the farm. We hit it off from the start.We became good friends right away, and best friends soon."
Source: Fred Wills (Correspondence with David Hull, December, 2004)

"Fred told me that Clem taught him everything he knows."
Source: Craig Stevenson, Van Briggle Pottery - conversation with David Hull (LA Pottery Show, Spring 2004)

? Colorado Springs
Clem and fellow VB employee Bob Wilfley invent a patented acoustic ceramic ceiling tile subsequently sold to Celletex.
Source: Fred WIlls

1948 Colorado Springs
(Date approximate - "late 40's") Van Briggle begins placing 2 artist initials on pottery. Clem's pottery incision changed from "C" to "CH"
Source: Fred Wills

1948 Colorado Springs
Frances Hull gives birth to Clement Grove Hull
Source: Hull Family Bible

1950 Colorado Springs
Fran Hull gives birth to Dorothy Anne Hull
Source: Hull Family Bible

1952 Colorado Springs
(Date approximate - "Early 50's")Clem resurrects the mark he used at Hull-Santa Fe Potteries. Clem's pottery incision changes from "CH" to his distinctive "CMH" which appears on subsequent printed material from Van Briggle.
Source: Van Briggle Pottery, Fred Wills, various private collectors

1952 Colorado Springs
Frances Hull gives birth to Mary Rita Hull
Source: Hull Family Bible

1954 Colorado Springs
Holds Classes. Ceramic School for 8 weeks at Van Briggle Pottery
Source: C.S. Gazette Telegraph

1956 Colorado Springs
Clem develops Van Briggles' famed Gold Ore Glaze from tailings of gold mines in Cripple Creek Colorado
Source: Fred Wills

? Colorado Springs
Clem develops a glazed tile at Van Briggle for which he is granted royalties. After his death in 1965, his wife Fran receives royalties until her death in 1982.
Source: Mark Hull

1956 Colorado Springs
Fran Hull gives birth to Robert William Purves Hull
Source: Hull Family Bible

1959 Colorado Springs
Frances Hull gives birth to David Michael Hull
Source: Hull Family Bible

1960 Colorado Springs
Clem's father, Walter A. Hull passes away quietly while napping in his favorite wing-back chair.
Source: David Hull

1962 Colorado Springs
Clem is first resident of the state of Colorado to become a member of MENSA, and establishes the Colorado chapter of MENSA as Locsec (chapter president). MENSA is a society of individuals possessing IQ's in the "genius" range.
Source: American MENSA, Colorado MENSA, Elizabeth Shonk

1962 Colorado Springs
Clem Hull's poetry is published in the poetry periodical Parnassus and the subsequent book "Treasures of Parnassus: The Best Poetry of 1962" Vol. II - under the pseudonym "Shelley Nash."
Source: Treasures of Parnassus:The Best Poetry of 1962 - Vol I

1965 Colorado Springs
Clem Hull succumbs to the disease scleroderma in October. On his deathbed, leaves the greatest gift to his family, the promise of life eternal.

Clement Marot Hull is laid to rest at Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs with his father, Walter Austin Hull, and they are joined in rest shortly by his mother, Mary Hull.
Source: Gazette Telegraph, Evergreen Cemetery


Professional and Social Associations

  • MENSA International
  • American Karate Assn of Colorado Springs and Denver
  • American Ceramic Society
  • Sons of the American Revolution
  • Catholic and Unitarian Churches


Hobbies & Interests:

Hunting and fishing with best friend Fred Wills and son Grove, picnicking and hiking in the Austin Bluffs outside Colorado Springs with family and friends, drive-in movies, Harley Davidson motorcycles, photography, writing poetry - some of which he published under the nom-de-plume of Shelley Nash, raising Boxer dogs, chess, karate, breaking bricks with his bare hands, physics, wildlife biology (esp. reptiles), theology, philosophy.


Musical Instruments:

Flute, harmonica
Favorite song: Greensleeves


 

To View Full size image of historical documents below, click thumbnail

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Clem and Walt open Hull Santa-Fe Pottery

Wood Cut Print by Eliseo Rodriguez


The news clippings below are from the Hull Family Bible, which dates from 1502, and which is in the care of Robert W.P. Hull



Museum Exhibit
New Mexico



Clem Hull and Frances Cullum Marry

View as Text


Coronado Exhibition

Santa Fe Museum of Fine Art

1940

(Cover)



Leaving Home for War Effort



Exhibit at Federal Bureau of Standards



Clem to Hold Ceramics Classes

View as text



Clem Holds Classes at Van Briggle

View as text

View entire Series



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Clem Develops Gold Ore Glaze


To View Full size image of historical documents below, click thumbnail

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1931 Commencement

From the Hull Family Bible


VB Brochure featuring Clem Hull's hands.

From the Collection of Steve and Rose Splittgerber


VB Brochure featuring Clem Hull's hands.

From the collection of David Hull


Picture of Clem on the wheel from the Book The Van Briggle Story by Dorothy Bogue

From the collection of Steve and Rose Splittgerber


Photo from Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph

Nice Photo but erroneous info as noted by his wife, Fran Hull.


MENSA Letter

MENSA List

MENSA Bio