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
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