Description

John Dirks joined the faculty of the Art Department at San Diego State College in 1947 and retired from San Diego State University in 1976 as professor emeritus. The interview is a part of the Oral History Project of the San Diego State University Archives and is being recorded at Professor Dirks' home on Mount Helix. John Dirks, born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin on March 13, 1914, grew up near the campus of San Diego State, a school which he would later attend as a student and eventually teach at as a professor. After graduating from Hoover High School in 1932, Dirks entered San Diego State College, playing football for the Aztecs and intending to study physical education to become a coach. However, professor and painter Everett Gee Jackson advised him to change his major to art, which began a lifelong friendship between the two artists. Dirks taught art at San Diego State for nearly 30 years, serving as department chair for several years. A prominent sculptor and furniture designer, Dirks exhibited throughout the country in such places as the First World Congress of Craftsmen and the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York, and received numerous awards for his work in sculptures, wood furniture, ceramics, and mosaics. He was a founding member of the Latin American Arts Committee of the San Diego Museum of Art, and was the last surviving founding member of the San Diego Allied Craftsmen. Dirks retired from San Diego State University in 1976 and died on Christmas Day 2008. Names mentioned during the interview include: Frank H. Losey, Douglas Dirks, Milton G. Wegeforth, Everett Gee Jackson, Patricia Patterson, Marguerite Brydegaard, Ilse Hamann Ruocco, Allan Shields, James E. Crouch, Lloyd Ruocco, Dan Dickey, Martha Longenecker, Sam Maloof, John R. Theobald, Harry C. Steinmetz, John R. Adams, Frank Louis Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Sidney L. Gulick, Jr., Gillian Theobald, and Paul A. Lingren.