Alfred Pfister
Sept. 23, 1889-April 14, 1975
Niles Daily Star, Tuesday, April 15, 1975, page 2, col. 4-5, microfilm Niles District Library
Alfred Pfister, artist dies at 85
NILES--Alfred Pfister, 85, of 716 Hickory St., a retired professional artist widely known in the Michiana area, died at 12:30 p.m. Monday at Pawating Hospital after a two-day illness.
A former poster artist who originated posters for 101 Ranch Shows and the Hagenbeck-Wallace and John Robinson Circuses, Mr. Pfister had a long career of working primarily in oils and watercolors. He had several one-man invited shows in South Bend, Detroit and Niles, and was a familiar figure at other area art shows. After retirement, he taught art in his home studio and in adult education programs of the Niles, Brandywine and Buchanan schools for 16 years.
Mr. Pfister was born Sept. 23, 1889, in Norwood, Ohio,and came to Niles in 1913 as a poster artist with the National Printing and Engraving Co. Except for a three-year residence at Cleveland Ohio, where he studied at the Huntington Polytechnic School of Art, he lived in Niles ever since. On July 6, 1916, at Niles, he married the former Lulu Swartwout. She died Feb. 25, of this year.
Before coming to Niles, Mr. Pfister worked as a poster artist for the U.S. Litho Co. at Norwood and Otis Litho Co. at Cleveland and studied at the Art Academy at the University of Cincinnati. In about 1945, he turned to water colors to paint waterfront scenes of western Michigan and the New England and Gulf coasts.
Mr. Pfister was an elder in the First Presbyterian Church and a member of St. Joseph Valley Masonic Lodge, the Northern Indiana Artists Assn., the Niles Art Assn. and the Professional Artists' League of New York.
Surviving are a son, Alfred H. Pfister of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; two daughters, Mrs. Harold F. Klute and Mrs. Hubert H. Haslett, both of Niles; a brother, Carl A. Pfister of Mobile, Ala, 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the First Presbyterian Church. The Rev. John R. Wyngarden will officiate and burial will be in Silverbrook Cemetery.
Friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m. today at the Halbritter Funeral Home. Memorials may be made to the Pawating Hospital building fund or the First Presbyterian Church memorial fund.