HALLER, Hart (Hal) Empie

The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, Arizona March 27, 2002, page B1 Noted Arizona artist Empie is dead at 93 Hal Empie - 1909-2002 Hart Haller "Hal" Empie, a famed Western artist and the youngest licensed pharmacist in the history of the state, died Tuesday of natural causes on his 93rd birthday at Tucson Medical Center. The state's oldest continuous resident artist, Empie was born in Safford when Arizona was still a territory. He literally grew up with the state, living in his native land for all but one of his 93 years. As a resident of Safford, Solomon, Duncan and, most recently, Tubac, Empie painted the sweeping desert vistas and brightly hued sunsets he saw from his own back yard. His honest, earthy portrayal of austere forts, purple mountains and lonely cowpokes earned him national acclaim. He never painted from a picture but rather relied on his own imagination and memory for inspiration. Empie's artwork has been displayed everywhere from Arizona Highways magazine to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Alan Day, brother of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and lifelong friend of Empie's, remembered Empie as "the dean of Arizona painters." "The passing of Hal Empie is a watershed in Arizona art and its traditions, which he helped grandfather into existence," said Evelyn Cooper director of the Arizona Historical Foundation. Last year, Cooper finished writing Empie's biography, titled "Arizona's Hal Empie, His Life, His Times and His Art." "He was a paragon of all the virtues expected of a classical master - imaginative, compassionate, inquisitive and, most of all, talented from the soul out," she said. "To say he will be missed constitutes an understatement, for true Renaissance men come along seldom and never seem to last long enough." For all his talent, Empie led a double life - pharmacist by day, painter by any spare minute he could find. Hoping to support his family with a stable career, Empie first enrolled at the University of Arizona as a premed major. But he soon dropped out to marry his high school sweetheart, Louise Reinhardt. Shortly thereafter, he went to the Capital College of Pharmacy in Denver, where he earned a pharmacy degree. At age 20, he become the youngest certified pharmacist in the state's history, receiving a special license to practice until he turned 21. For more than 50 years, Empie worked as the town of Duncan's pharmacist. After taking over Duncan Drug Store, he changed the pharmacy's name to Art Gallery Drug and hung his paintings all over the walls. In the back of the store, he had wet canvases, which he worked on between filling prescriptions. Throughout his career, Empie experimented in nearly every medium, from charcoal drawings to sculpture. His most financially lucrative endeavor was a set of postcards he drew, called Empie Kartoon Kards. These sets of black-and-white postcards featured desert animals - horses, cattle, rattlesnakes - making pithy observations on Western life. They earned him enough money to put his three children, Halene, Joel and Ann, through college. In the midst of financial and artistic success, Empie remained a gentle, down-to-earth man who was "beyond madly" in love with his wife, said his daughter, Ann Empie Groves. Hal and Louise Empie were married for 72 years and were inseparable until her death 11 months ago. Many who knew Empie remember his kind heart, quick sense of humor and humility, said Groves. In an interview a few months before his death, Empie noted that the best compliment he ever received was from a child, who snuck up behind him while Empie was painting and said, "Mister, you sure stay in the lines good." After retiring to Tubac, Empie continued to paint, wandering around his home and studio in a paint-smudged smock, looking for beautiful light and dreaming up landscapes. Beginning in 1995, Empie suffered from macular degeneration, a condition that all but erased his frontal eyesight. In spite of this, the scrappy, self-made man painted every day until he died. Empie is survived by three children - Halene Empie Smith, Joel S. Empie and Ann Empie Groves - as well as seven grandchildren and 12 great- grandchildren. Funeral services are pending. Donations may be made to the Arizona Historical Foundation, Arizona State University, Box 871006, Tempe, AZ 85287-1006 or contact (480) 966-8331.