John J. Fawcett Cartoon collection (fawcett)

Biographical note

John Joseph Fawcett was born on February 6, 1909 in the Smith Hill section of Providence, Rhode Island. The son of John and Catherine (Mulryan) Fawcett, he was raised in the Smith Hill and Olneyville sections of the city.

Fawcett attended St. Mary's Acedemy and Technical High School in Providence, RI. His formal art training consisted of three years of Saturday morning classes at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) from 1922-1924 and a $25 correspondence course in cartooning. During his time at RISD Fawcett was awarded tuition free scholarships for two of those years. He graduated from Technical High in 1927, and won All-State soccer honors there.

Fawcett began his career in commercial art sketching furniture for advertisements for Kane Furniture Store in Hartford, Connecticut. He later worked at several Providence, RI, art studios as a letterer and package designer.

In 1938, Fawcett was hired by the Providence Journal as a letterer. Over the years he served the newspaper as an illustrator, sports cartoonist, and finally, starting in 1960 as the paper's editorial cartoonist. He retired from the Journal in 1975.

Fawcett's editorial cartoons won National Brotherhood Awards from the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1962, 1963, and in 1969. In 1965, he received a certificate of recognition from the Conference for "outstanding leadership in promoting the cause of good will and understanding among all the people of our nation."

In 1933, Fawcett married Ruth (Shurtleff) Fawcett and they had two sons. After Ruth passed away, Fawcett took a second wife, Margaret (Corrigan) Lanni, in 1970. Fawcett died in August, 1992.