Photo of Frank Godwin, courtesy James A. Michener Art Museum archives

Frank Godwin was a leading illustrator and cartoonist. He began his career as a staff artist for the Washington Star; where his father was editor. While studying art in New York, he shared a studio with Eugene O'Neill and James Montgomery Flagg. His work as an illustrator includes an edition of Kidnapped, as well as several books by Lippincott Publishers. His illustrations appeared in magazines such as Redbook, Liberty, Judge, and The Saturday Evening Post. His well-known comic strip Connie, created for the Public Ledger Syndicate, was widely circulated from Philadelphia. While in the Air Force in World War I, he designed and made the first air-to-ground reconnaissance camera, which is now in the Smithsonian. During World War II he did war posters for the Unites States government and full page ads for Texaco and Coca-Cola, illustrating the life of service men. After World War II he built a studio in New Hope, where he created the comic strip Rusty Riley about the adventures of a teenage boy, for King Features Syndicate. Rusty Riley was published in 350 papers worldwide.