BIOGRAPHY

Dean Mosher's epic historic paintings are located in museums, National Park Service visitor centers, and public buildings around the country, including the United States Naval Academy, the United States Coast Guard Academy, the University of Virginia's John Paul Jones Arena; NPS Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial; NPS Carillon Historical Park (in the Kettering Family Education Center near the Wright Brothers Aviation Center) in Dayton, Ohio; SUNY Gallery in Plattsburgh, New York; Mobile Museum of Art; Fairhope Museum of History; and Fort Meigs Visitors Center in Perrysburg, Ohio.

August 2nd – The artist’s painting "Buchanan’s Fateful Decision" was unveiled at Fort Morgan in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the battle of Mobile Bay. Hundreds of people gathered to witness the unveiling. The painting was commissioned by the Alabama Historical Commission.

April - The artist’s “A Grateful Nation Remembers” was installed on permanent display at the new state-of-the-art Colonel Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home in Pell City, Alabama. Admiral Clyde Marsh, State Veterans Commissioner, served as master of ceremonies at the event.

January – In the January issue of the Smithsonian’s Air & Space magazine, the artist published an article about the Untold History of Wilbur Wright’s flight around the Statue of Liberty in the In the Museum section to compliment his recent hanging of his 8’ x 10’ painting “Wilbur Wright Greets Lady Liberty”.

Throughout the year – Produced over 160 drawings for Reverand Richard H. Schmidt’s new book “Saints Seers & Seeks” to be published in May 2015.

August 1st – The artist’s 8’ x 10’ “Wilbur Wright Greets Lady Liberty” canvas was placed on permanent display in the Early Flight Gallery of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum on the mall in Washington, DC. The artist was there with his wife Pagan and children Megrez and Cleveland. Present were Senior Curator Doctor Tom Crouch and Chief Curator Doctor Peter Jakabs.

March 22nd - Over 300 people came to witness the dedication of "Nature's Playground", the 42' sculpture in the new town center of Gautier, Mississippi. With a unique vision firmly in his mind, Mosher took to assemble a top-notch team of artists, craftsmen, machinists, welders, masons, engineers, and technicians who labored over a year in the construction.

Throughout the year, worked with a wonderful crew of engineers, metal workers, welders, tile and stone masons, a stained-glass master, a lighting expert, and two master copper craftsmen to construct "Nature's Playground", which will become a 40+-foot high sculpture to be completed in February 2013 to grace the new town center of Gautier, Mississippi.

With Admiral Clyde Marsh, USN (Ret.), Congressman Jo Bonner, Steve Muro, Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs, unveiled "A Grateful Nation Remembers" at the ceremony opening the new veterans cemetery in Spanish Fort, Alabama.

August 30th - Learned that the NASM Collections Committee had voted to accept "Wilbur Wright Greets Lady Liberty" into the collection with a plan to display it on the Early Flight Gallery. Installation is expected to be in the summer of 2013.

June 1st - Attended the Memorial Service marking the Centennial of the passing of Wilbur Wright. Dean and Pagan were guests of the Wright family when Neil Armstrong made one of his last public appearances to honor Wright's memory.

May 31st - Present where Dr. Thomas Crouch, Senior Curator of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum; Amanda Wright Lane, head of the Wright Foundation; and Mary Mathews, retired director of Carillon Historical Park, unveiled "Wilbur Wright Greets Lady Liberty."

May 29th - Lectured on the technical aspects of Wilbur Wright's flight around the Statue of Liberty on September 29th, 1909, to the "Barn Gang" at Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio. Several members there had known Orville Wright, who was a longtime member.

January 7th - Unveiled the “Battle of Flamborough Head” painting at John Paul Jones Arena on the campus of the University of Virginia. Speakers included UVA president Teresa Sullivan, Paul Tudor Jones, and Dean Mosher.

Paul Tudor Jones purchased “Battle of Flamborough Head” for $100,000 and donated it to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.

June 4th - “Founders’ Vision: ‘A Fair Hope of Success’” was unveiled at the Fairhope Museum of History in Fairhope, Alabama. The 7' x 12' oil on canvas is an homage to the utopian dreamers who dedicated their lives to creating the ideal community, founded in 1894 based on Henry George’s Single Tax principles.

Delivered “USCG Bibb Bermuda Sky Queen Rescue, October 14-15, 1947" to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, New London, Connecticut. This painting was sponsored by the USCGA Alumni Association for permanent display at the Academy.

January 11th - Presented the Naval Heritage Lecture at the Surface Navy Association’s Annual Symposium in Washington, D.C. The lecture and reception were sponsored by Raytheon Corporation and attended by over 300 guests. Other presenters included the Chief of Naval Operations and the Secretary of the Navy.

Awarded the Commander General's Medal for his successful efforts to consolidate and preserve the archives of the Naval Order of the United States, formally presented in Washington, D.C., in October of 2006.

October - Delivered lecture on "The Battle of Lake Erie" at the Annual Congress of the Naval Order of the United States in San Diego, California. Was unanimously elected for a third term as Historian General.

August - Unveiled “The Battle of Fallen Timbers” at the Fort Meigs Museum and Education Center in Perrysburg, Ohio. The work was commissioned by the Ohio Bicentennial Commission. The premier scholar on the painting was Dr. G. Michael Pratt of Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio. Other advisors included Don Retting, Toledo Metroparks; Gerard Altoff, historian, National Park Service; Jim Hunter, botanist; and Jay Eben, historian.

January 14 - Presented the first Naval Heritage Lecture at the Surface Navy Association’s Annual National Symposium. The lecture and reception were sponsored by Raytheon Corporation and attended by over 200 guests. Other speakers at the symposium were Admiral Vernon Clark, USN, Chief of Naval Operations; Rear Admiral Mark J. Edwards, USN, Director of Surface Warfare; and The Honorable Gordon England, Secretary of the Navy.

October 25th - Unanimously reelected Historian General of the NOUS at the 2002 Congress of the Naval Order of the United States in Newport, Rhode Island; made presentation on "David Glasgow Farragut and the Battle of Mobile Bay." Other presenters at the Congress included Drs. John Hattendorf and Donald Chisholm of the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, and Dr. Roberts Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

July 17th - “The Bishop’s Boys: Late Afternoon, May 25, 1910, Huffman Prairie, Ohio” was unveiled at the Lockheed Martin Pavilion in the heart of Celebration Central at Deeds Point, Dayton, Ohio, during the Wright Centennial Celebration. Madeline Iseli, co-president of Inventing Flight, acted as master of ceremonies for the event. The speakers were Jerry Lindstrom, Vice President, Business Development, for Lockheed Martin; Stephen George, Executive Director of Ohio’s Bicentennial Commission; Dr. Thomas D. Crouch, Senior Curator of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum; and Amanda Wright Lane, great-grandniece of Wilbur and Orville. Dr. Crouch and Ms. Lane unveiled the work.

October 19th - Made a presentation at the 2002 Annual Congress of the NOUS in Houston, Texas, on “John Paul Jones and the Battle of Flamborough Head.” Other presenters included Professor James C. Bradford, a naval historian from Texas A&M University, and Rear Admiral Donald P. Loren, USN, Director, Surface Ship Development and Support in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

October 18th - Elected Historian General of the Naval Order of the United States at its 2002 Annual Congress, Houston, Texas. The Naval Order is America’s oldest naval society, established in 1890.

September 20th - Featured speaker at the annual meeting of the Naval Order of the United States, held at the Fort Myer Officers Club, Arlington, Virginia.

September 11th - Unveiled battle portrait of Commodore Thomas Macdonough at City Hall in Plattsburgh, New York. Participants included Capt. Robert D. Jenkins III, USN; Miss Isabelle Verkhaart, granddaughter of Macdonough; and Rep. Chris Ortloff.

September 7th - Unveiled "Perry Breaking the Line: The Battle of Lake Eerie, 3pm, September 10th, 1813" at the National Parks Service visitors center on South Bass Island, Ohio Put-in-Bay historical weekend celebration. Speakers at the Memorial Program included Prof. James C. Bradford, Texas A&M University; Rear Adm. Wayne Meyer, USN (Ret.); Capt. John Hammerer, USS Lake Erie; and Capt. John Beebe-Center, U.S. Brig Niagara; with the Hon. George C. Smith as master of ceremonies.

May 17-18th - Attended, by invitation of the National Parks Service, the special events surrounding the opening of the newest NPS visitors center at Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial in Put-in-Bay, Ohio. Participated in the official acceptance ceremony for the “Battle of Lake Erie” canvases at the center. The unveiling was performed by Edward J. Reiter, chairman of the board of Sky Financial Services, and federal judge George Smith.

April - Portrait of Commodore Thomas Macdonough had been selected by the Naval Institute Press for use on the cover of Professor David Skaggs’s forth biography, released in fall 2002.

July 21 - “The Artistic Reconstruction of the Battle of Lake Erie,” exhibited at the Twenty-Third Annual Meeting of the Society for Historians of the Early Republic at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Was available for questions and informal discussion of the display along with Gerard T. Altoff, Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial National Park; Craig Sheldon, Jr., Auburn University at Montgomery; and Walter Rybka, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

January 11 - Participated in a special ceremony to announce the acquisition of “The Battle of Mobile Bay” by the Mobile Museum of Art. Speakers included Mobile Mayor Michael Dow, Museum Director Joe Schenk, Prof. James C. Bradford, Prof. Craig T. Sheldon, and Jack H. Friend.

March 7th - Delivered a paper on the process of recreating a moment in time, “The Battle of Mobile Bay, 7:45 A.M., August 5, 1864", at the annual conference of the North American Society of Oceanic History in Point Clear, Alabama.

November - In Plattsburgh, New York, gathered the top scholars and historians on the Battle of Lake Champlain to reach consensus on the positions and condition of the vessels involved, using over 40 scale models and a precise scale map of the entire battle area. Participants were James C. Bradford, Ph.D., of Texas A&M University; Gerard T. Altoff, author and historian, of the National Parks Service; Walter Rybka, historian and Sailing Master of the US Brig Niagara; and Col. David Fitz-Enz, author and historian.

September 18 - At the “60 Years’ War for the Great Lakes, 1754-1814" conference at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, unveiled “The Battle of Lake Erie, 2:35 P.M., September 10, 1813" along with the companion portrait of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, and participated in a panel discussion concerning the process of recreating the “moment in time” depicted in the painting. Other panelists were James C. Bradford, Ph.D., of Texas A&M University; Gerard T. Altoff, author and historian, of the National Parks Service; Walter Rybka, historian and Sailing Master of the US Brig Niagara; and David William Hale, the GIS computer scientist who plotted the battle’s progression.

August 12th - At the invitation of Capt. Douglas W. Keith, lectured to the Admirals Club aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) on her pre-commissioning cruise from Ingalls Shipyard to Pensacola, Florida.

February - Placed both “Battle of Mobile Bay” and “Battle of Flamborough Head” on display in the main gallery of the United States Naval Academy Museum, Preble Hall, where they remained through April.

July - In Kirkbean, Scotland, at a worldwide celebration to commemorate the 250th anniversary of his birth, presented portrait of John Paul Jones to the Hon. John H. Dalton, Secretary of the Navy, to be placed in the collection of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Both paintings in this set have been selected by the John Paul Jones Birthplace Museum Trust as the official commemorative works marking this event.

April - At the annual meeting of the Society for Military History in Montgomery, Alabama, unveiled “The Battle of Flamborough Head, 9:45 p.m., September 23, 1779,” and participated in a panel discussion on recreating this “Great Moment.” Other panelists included James C. Bradford, Ph.D., of Texas A&M University; Peter Reaveley, historian and author; and Craig T. Sheldon, Jr., Ph.D., of Alabama University at Montgomery.

April - Presented “Farragut in the Mainshrouds” to the United States Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland, to become part of its permanent collection.

November 4th - Unveiled “Battle of Mobile Bay, 7:45 A.M., August 5, 1864,” at the Winter Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Navy League of the United States. It and its companion portrait, “Farragut in the Mainshrouds,” were the first pair in a series of companion paintings depicting “Great Moments in United States Naval History Where Character and Circumstances Met to Produce Victory.”