Francis Whitaker

Francis Whitaker (November 29, 1906 – October 23, 1999) was a blacksmith in Carmel, California, where he established The Forge in the Forest and in Aspen, Colorado, The Mountain Forge, which he later relocated when he was named an artist-in-residence at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colorado.[1]

He was born in Woburn, Massachusetts[2] and died in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

His training as a smith included a one year apprenticeship under Philadelphia based blacksmith Samuel Yellin followed by a two year apprenticeship under Julius Schramm in Berlin, Germany in the mid 1920s. Upon his return to the states, he began working as a smith in a career that spanned eight decades. During World War ll, Whitaker was hired by the US Navy to teach welding at the Naval Base San Diego, USA.[3]

In addition to maintaining his shop, he wrote or co-wrote four books on blacksmithing.

In 1976, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Colorado.[4] In 1995, he received the Colorado Council on the Arts Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. In 1997, he received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[5]