Q. David Bowers
ORTMAYER, Constance
Born in New York City on July 19, 1902, Constance Ortmayer studied art at the Royal Academy in London, in Vienna, and else-where and during the 1930s became well known for her sculpture and medallic work including work exhibited at the 1939 World's Fair (New York City) and Brookgreen Gardens (South Carolina). By the end of the decade she was a teacher at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, a position she had secured in 1937 and maintained through at least 1960. Among her works are medals and art for post offices in Arcadia (Florida) and Scottsboro (Alabama).
Commemorative credit: 1936 Cincinnati half dollar.
PARSONS, David Goode
David Goode Parsons, born in Stoughton, Wisconsin (Who's Who in American Art, Vol IV, 1940-1947 says Gary, Indiana) on March 2, 1911, was a student at the University of Wisconsin in 1936, when he prepared designs for the Wisconsin Territorial Centennial half dollar. Parsons, who later maintained a studio in Stoughton, went on to greater things after his half dollar design and won many prizes during the late 1930s and 1940s for his sculptures and other work. In addition to his Wisconsin studies, for which he earned an M.S. in Arts and Education, Parsons was a student at the Art Institute of Chicago. His lecture, "Contemporary American Sculpture," was mentioned in contemporary accounts. During 1944-1945 he was a surgical assistant for plastic surgery in the United States Army.
Commemorative credit: 1936 Wisconsin Territorial Centennial half dollar (his early designs were extensively revised by Benjamin Franklin Hawkins).
PEED, James M.
James (Jim) Melvin Peed was born on April 25, 1945, in Washington, North Carolina. He began his art career studying oil painting with Frith Winslow, noted portraitist and religious landscape artist in eastern North Carolina. He attended classes at the Corcoran School of Art (1969), Northern Virginia Community College (1971-1972), and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia (1973). Jim Peed became a part of the Mint staff in 1972 and has been employed as a graphic artist in the Washington, D.C. office since 1975.
Commemorative credit: 1984 Olympic $10 (prepared sketches for the obverse; John Mercanti redesigned the motif and did the model).
PELOSO, Matthew
Born on October 9, 1918, in Salerno, Italy, the son of Carlo and Albina Palumbo Peloso, Matthew Peloso came to the United States at the age of two. His younger years were spent in Brooklyn, New York. Later he studied art at the Cooper Union in New York City. During World War II he served in the Army, 1943 to 1946. While in Europe after the war he had the chance to study for about eight months at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.
Upon his return he studied for six years at the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore, under the G.I. Bill, after which he opened his own studio, where he fulfilled architectural and other sculpture commissions for a period of about 20 years including much work for the Kirk-Stieff Company of Baltimore. For a time he taught art at the Rehoboth Art League and at the Jewish Community Center in Baltimore.
He was married for the first time to Evelyn Hamilton Wood in 1947. The union produced a daughter, Anna, born in 1949. In 1972 Matthew Peloso married Betty Rawlings (maiden name: Betty G. Myers).
For a period of time he worked as a model maker with Black and Decker, a tool manufacturer in Towson, Maryland, for whom he designed the outer cases and designs of tools and other items. In addition, he did much outside work including the creation of about 100 portrait heads for wax museums in Gettysburg, Harpers Ferry, and elsewhere; five life-size figures of African bushmen (Kalahari) for the Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History; and 15 carved wood sculptures for the County Courthouse, Towson, Maryland.
In response to an invitation from Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro, in 1973 Matthew Peloso joined the Engraving Department of the Mint, remaining there until his resignation in 1986. During his tenure he designed many medals and other works. Among the medals he designed (D) or modeled (M) at the Mint include the following: 1973-1976: Colorado Centennial (M reverse), Secretary of the Treasury(D&M reverse), President Gerald Ford (D&M reverse), N.Y. Custom House (D&M obverse), U.S. Army Bicentennial (M obverse), U.S. Navy Bicentennial (M reverse), Gen. Charles Yeager (D&M reverse); 1977: Assay Commission (D&M reverse), Mary Brooks 2nd Term (D&M reverse), Justice Hughes (D&M obverse), Marian Anderson (D&M reverse); 1978: Dominican Republic common reverse for coinage, Dept. of Labor Valor Award (D&M), Old Denver Mint (D&M obverse); 1979: Dept. of Labor (M obverse), Charlotte Mint (D&M obverse), Marian Anderson gold bullion medal (M reverse); 1980: Hubert Humphrey (D&M reverse), Mark Twain gold bullion medal (D&M); 1981: token included with Proof sets (M obverse); 1982: Queen Beatrix (Mreverse), Admiral Hyman Rickover (D&M reverse); 1983: Fred Waring (M reverse), Louis L'Amour (D&M obverse), Panama coinage reverse design (reworked); 1984: New Orleans Exposition (M obverse; medal never issued), Missing in Action in Southeast Asia (M obverse), Congressman Ryan (D&M obverse), Presidential Safety Award (D&M obverse), Roy Wilkins (M obverse); 1985: President Truman (D&M obverse), Vietnam Veterans (D&M); 1986: reworking of the obverse design of the Lincoln cent and the Washington quarter dollar (25¢ modification first used in 1977), modification of Saint-Gaudens' $20 design (see following).
"My last work at the Mint was the complete reworking of the Saint-Gaudens Standing Liberty gold bullion coin obverse. Secretary of the Treasury Baker ordered the Mint to take 20 pounds off the figure of Liberty. He said she was too fat." Today Matthew Peloso maintains his studio in Haddonfield, New Jersey.
Commemorative credits: 1982 Washington half dollar (reverse; with Elizabeth Jones), 1986 Statue of Liberty silver dollar (reverse; with John Mercanti).