Silas Rhodes
Silas H. Rhodes (September 15, 1915 – June 27, 2007) was an American educator and co-founder of a trade school for illustrators and cartoonists that eventually became the School of Visual Arts, one of the premier U.S. colleges for art and design. Early life and education Rhodes was born and raised in the Bronx, New York City. His mother ran a failed wholesale egg business and his father worked for the U.S. Post Office as a postal clerk. Rhodes employed both of his parents in the administrative departments of the School of Visual Arts later in his life. Rhodes received his bachelor's degree from Long Island University. He continued his education and obtained a master's degree from Columbia University. Rhodes wrote his dissertation on poet Robert Burns. He originally intended to become an English teacher, not a cartoonist. Military service Rhodes enlisted in the U.S. Army following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He flew several missions with the Army's 1st Air Commando Group in China, Burma and India. Rhodes obtained a job with the Veterans Administration after World War II. Rhodes, along with illustrator Burne Hogarth, persuaded the VA to support an art school specifically to help