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Bob Bastian
© Bob Bastian. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA
Bob Bastian
© Bob Bastian. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA

Bob Bastian

Cartoonist, American, 1917 - 1970
Birth PlaceCalifornia, United States
Place of DeathTamaulipas, Mexico
Robert O. Bastian spent his early years in Stockton, Calif. In 1940 he received a B.A. in Political Science from the College of the Pacific. Following graduation, Bastian studied art with Dong Kingman at the San Francisco Art Institute until the outbreak of World War II. After serving with the Marines in the South Pacific, he worked in San Francisco as an advertising illustrator until hired as editorial cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1953. Bastian held this position until a 1968 strike forced him to seek other employment. He died in 1970 by suicide.