User:Genealogist44

William Percy Couse

William Percy Couse (December 17, 1898-July 2, 1980) was an American artist born to William James Couse and Mary Elizabeth Winsor. He was born in Farmingdale, New Jersey, U.S.A. on December 17, 1898. His work appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, Harper’s, Harper’s Magazine’s St. Nicholas, Youth’s Companion, A Children’s Edition of Encyclopedia Britannica and three novels by James Fenimore Cooper.

After serving in France during World War I, he began a career as a freelance artist. When World War II came, his career changed completely. Though he still did oil paintings when he could, he mostly focused on his job in the production illustration department of an aircraft factory. He eventually taught production illustration for the government. Then from 1948 to 1964, Couse worked at Fort Monmouth, illustrating army publications which dealt with electronics equipment. In 1964 he retired as assistant chief of the Graphics Office of the National Maintenance Point, Army Electronics Command. He also taught students in his Interlaken, New Jersey studio and at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In c. 1923, he married Elizabeth Hanson Mears (1903-2004), whom he had three children with, Elizabeth Anne Couse(1925-Living), Harriet Hodgson Couse (1930-2001) and Thomas Preston Mears Couse (1935-2011).

William P. Couse was a member of Salmagundi Club, New York, Artists Equity and the Associated Artists of New Jersey. He was a former member of the Apollo Club of Asbury Park and a member of the original Monmouth Players.

He passed away on July 2, 1980 of natural causes in his Interlaken, N.J. home at 615 Grasmere Avenue.