Donald Eugene Mudd

Born at an early age (he was three months premature), Don grew up in St. Augustine, colleged lightly in Washington, D.C., and then entered the Foreign Service with postings including Damascus, La Paz, Frankfurt, the Pentagon, and the Armed Forces Staff College.

Hobbies included whitewater kayaking, scuba, judo and classical music. While this was all a convenient cover, Don actually used the time to practice the art of woodblock carving, making block prints in the traditional Japanese method. His model was the famous Hokusai (1760-1849) who, at the age of seventy-something, changed his artist’s signature on his prints to read “old man crazy about drawing.”

Dad was all those, and more. He brought humor, intensity, immense patience and outstanding intelligence and empathy to everything he did. An intensely private man who rarely expressed his feelings, he revealed them instead through his art and thoughtful acts. In his self-description he failed to mention his passion for photography and interest in nature and people – especially birds. Dad became a dedicated bird-watcher and superbly talented bird photographer in his later years – though photography was a passion for him for as long as I can remember and we always had a darkroom wherever we lived, until the advent of digital photography. His legacy is his art and the memories he has left with all those he influenced during his long and productive life.