Artist, former Chronicle art director Bob Lynch dies

Award-winning former Chronicle-Telegram art director and editorial cartoonist Robert "Bob" Lynch, whose artwork appeared on the newspaper's pages for decades and hangs everywhere from Elyria High School to restaurants in the Florida town where he retired, died Saturday at home. A U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War, Lynch was 90 and living in Tavares, Florida, when he died, his daughter Patty Meldrum said. Not just an artist, Lynch was a civic booster and leader with a knack for making friends and known for his love of travel and being a great family man, Meldrum said. Hired by the Chronicle in the mid-1960s, Lynch started as a staff artist and ended with the title of art director. He illustrated stories and drew political and editorial cartoons for nearly 30 years until he retired in 1994, although he continued making cartoon contributions until 2020. He did courtroom sketches in Lorain and Cuyahoga county courts, and received several commendations from local police departments for doing composite sketches of criminal suspects that resulted in arrests, Meldrum said. Over time, he collected multiple Associated Press and Cleveland Press Club awards. Multiple former co-workers recalled him fondly for his kindness, his smile and sense of humor. Several Chronicle employees whom Lynch hired still work in the newspaper's art department. "Bob was a gentleman with a keen eye for the foibles of local politics and politicians," Chronicle-Telegram Editorial Page Editor Brad Dicken said. "Even those he chided in his cartoons often asked for the original prints so that they could hang them up in their offices or at home. Bob also took the time to honor local achievements in his cartoons, something that also won him the appreciation of readers." "People felt honored" to be the subject of a Bob Lynch portrait or cartoon, Meldrum said. You might not know Lynch by name, but if you went to Elyria High School you've seen his work: Mascot Petey Pioneer is a Lynch original, and Lynch drew portraits of inductees for the Elyria Sports Hall of Fame for the first 20 of its existence, Chronicle sportswriter and Hall of Fame trustee Tim Gebhardt said. Born in Rochester, New York, in April 1933, Lynch settled with his family in Grafton in 1938. Early family life was hard, as his mother was chronically ill, but Lynch would later say he and his siblings were "raised by the women of Grafton" who helped them survive — often without asking for anything in return, Meldrum said. Lynch never forgot that kindness, she said. "He always had a tight relationship with the families in Grafton because their mothers and grandmothers helped him so much," Meldrum said. Lynch attended the old Grafton School. Despite being only 5 feet 9 inches tall, he was a basketball standout and three-year starter in the sport. A graduate of the Class of 1951, Lynch had to turn down a full basketball scholarship to college so he could work to help support his family. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1953, Lynch was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland before he was deployed to Korea. Discharged from the Army, he went to The Cooper School of Art in Cleveland. Lynch married Janet Weston in 1955. They were married 68 years and had four children: Jeff, Debra, Patty and Barbara. After graduating from Cooper, Lynch worked for a number of advertising agencies in Cleveland. There, he was briefly a co-worker of Roy Lichtenstein, who later found fame as one of the most famous American pop artists and a contemporary of Andy Warhol. "'I used to work with that guy,'" Lynch would say when Lichtenstein's name came up, Meldrum said. "These were just people he ran across." The family traveled across the U.S. on weekends and during summers. Between dude ranches with singing cowboys where they'd eat off the chuck wagon, to underground working gold mines, "we didn't know where we were going to end up," Meldrum said. "I don't know how he found these things, but we had some awesome, awesome trips," she said. Lynch was more than just a cartoonist, his daughter said. His "serious" portraits of famous or just "day-to-day" people also were highly regarded, Meldrum said. Lynch was advertising director for the Lorain County Fair Board, drawing posters and being a "handler" for the entertainers who performed at the fair — Kenny Rogers and Eddie Rabbitt among them. He drew a poster featuring country music legends Roy Rogers and Dale Evans for their appearance at the fair one year. As was his custom, Lynch sent them the original — which they signed and sent back to him. The family still has it, Meldrum said. A Lynch family road trip in the 1960s or 1970s ended up at the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in California, she recalled. True to form, Bob Lynch ended up chatting with Roy Rogers like best friends, Meldrum remembered. Lynch believed strongly in sharing his gift and hosted many art education programs for churches, schools, Kiwanis, Lions, Key clubs, any organization that wanted them, she said. He held on to boxes full of "thank you" cards, notes and letters that she discovered following his death. "I know people really liked it," Meldrum said of the educational programs. "I sat through a few of them myself. It made you proud when you saw how much people enjoyed it. I can't remember if he ever got paid by the organizations, I think a lot of it was complimentary." As a travel agent, Meldrum took trips around the world. When she would come back and tell her father, he'd rattle off the names of Kiwanians he had met from those countries during his time as state governor for Kiwanis from 1983-84. Many family vacations coincided with Kiwanis conventions, Meldrum said, and many Kiwanians became lifelong family friends. A lifetime member through the Grafton-Midview Kiwanis Organization, Lynch received a Distinguished Service Award "in Recognition of Outstanding Leadership and Service" from the Eustis, Florida, Kiwanis Club in February 2011. "He was very proud of his membership in Kiwanis," Meldrum said. One of his other great prides was an Honor Flight from Orlando to Washington, D.C., for veterans that he got to take several years back. Meldrum said her father told her: "Next to having kids and being married, that's a highlight of my life." It came with a tour of the Vietnam War and Korean War memorials in the nation's capital, and involved Lynch making even more friends. In front of the Korean War memorial on that day were "about 40 Korean tourists on a bus," who appeared lost. Never one to miss an opportunity to make friends, Lynch started speaking to them in Korean, Meldrum said, then posed for a photo with the grateful tourists. "He was so proud to go on that trip," his daughter said. Lynch was a member and former elder at North Eaton Christian Church and a member of CompassLife Church in Tavares, Florida, at the time of his death. Lynch's membership and service in or on many other groups and organizations included the Lorain County Multiple Sclerosis Association; Grafton Historical Association; North Eaton Volunteer Fire Department; AMVETS Post 1992 in Eustis, Florida; Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1079 and American Legion Post 12 in Elyria; Grafton Hot Stove; the United Way and YMCA; and Lorain County 4-H. He was inducted into the Midview Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005. Lynch once did a portrait of beloved Cleveland Indians pitcher and Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Bob Feller that ran in the Chronicle. When he did portraits, he would often send the original to the subject and keep a copy for himself. Feller "loved it" and never forgot Lynch, Meldrum said. That became apparent at one Indians spring training game in Florida in the mid-1980s, when Bob and Janet Lynch and Patty and her husband Mark were in the stands as Feller walked past. "'Hey, Bob!'" Lynch said to Feller. "'Hey, Bob!'" Feller replied. Mark Meldrum couldn't believe it, his wife said. "'You just waved at Bob Feller and he knew your name?" he asked his father-in-law. "Yeah, we go way back," Lynch said. Bob Lynch is survived by his wife of 68 years, Janet; children Jeff (Coni) Lynch, Debra Lynch, Patty (Mark) Meldrum, and Barbara (Mark) Pragg; grandchildren, Amy (Scott) Kuhn, Jared (JP) Lynch and Joshua (Monica) Meldrum; great-grandchildren, Harper, Camryn, and Malcolm; and dear friend Richard Llewellyn of Elyria. A celebration of life will take place at CompassLife Church in Tavares, Florida, at 4 p.m. April 20 — a town where, in just about every restaurant, there's a place mat with original, hand-drawn Bob Lynch art up on the wall, Patty Meldrum said. Arrangements are being handled by the Harden-Pauli Funeral Home in Eustis, Florida.Contact Dave O'Brien at dobrien@chroniclet.com.