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1926-June 20th 2007 |
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RUDY AUTIO OBITUARY Rudy Autio, 80, father, renowned artist, and friend
to many, died at home on the morning of June 20 after two and a half years of
treatment for leukemia. He made friends with many fellow patients and healthcare
workers in the Oncology ward at St. Pat’s hospital during his many visits there.
Rudy was born in Butte to Arne and Selma (Wayrenen) Autio in 1926, who both
immigrated to America as teenagers. His father worked in the mines and his
mother cooked for a boarding house in Southern Cross, near Georgetown Lake.
Finnish was his first language and he didn’t learn English until he went to
primary school. This was an advantage to him in later years when he visited
Helsinki many times as a guest artist in the 1980s. During WWII, he joined the
US Navy and for two years he was stationed in California, where he served as an
aviation machinists’ mate. Though he volunteered for sea duty, he was sent to
Nevada, where he repaired airplane engines until the end of the war. Ever after
he had a special love for airplanes and later acquired a single-engine pilot’s
license. In the late 1940s he attended Montana State College in Bozeman on the
G.I. Bill, where he met his future wife Lela Moniger and his lifelong friend
Peter Voulkos. Rudy later received his M.F.A. from WSC in Pullman and joined
Peter Volkous at Western Montana Clay a brickyard operated by Archie Bray; a
commercial brickmaker who loved the arts. As first directors, both young men
made bricks by day and ceramic art in the evenings. To the end of his life, Rudy
supported the Archie Bray Foundation in just about every way possible, from
trustee to benefactor. His best known artworks are sculptural ceramic vessels,
but he also built tile murals, sculptures in steel, concrete and clay, and
painted and drew in a variety of media, even using a mason’s trowel to draw his
figures in clay. In 1957 Rudy left the Archie Bray Foundation to start a
ceramics program at the University of Montana in Missoula, which he headed for
28 years. For decades, he was a magnate to students pursuing sculpture, some of
whom later developed their own ceramic departments around the nation. Rudy was
commissioned to do a number of religious murals that grace churches in Montana.
Some of these are in Great Falls, Anaconda, Bozeman, Butte, and Missoula.
Another 70-foot mural resides at Wells Fargo Bank in Helena thatk celebrates the
discovery of gold in Last Chance Gulch. Other murals include the Metals Bank and
Trust in Butte, the stained glass windows for a chapel at Malmstrom AFB,
Missoula Fire Station and St. Anthony’s Church in Missoula. Internationally: a
mural for the Nippon Beauty Academy in Tokyo and a glass mosaic pillar at SEA
TAC airport in Seattle. In 1969, Rudy designed the UM bronze grizzly. An NEA
grant in 1980 enabled Rudy to work at the Arabia Clay Factory in Helsinki,
Finland, where he became friends with a group of Finnish weavers. Commissioned
to create a mural, Rudy hired these weavers to create a “Rya.” Enroute to
Finland, Rudy’s design was stolen while he napped waiting for a plane. He flew
on to Helsinki, bought some paper and pastels, and redrew his design, supplying
the weavers with what he believed a fresh improvement upon the earlier design.
This 20’ x 30’ Rya hangs at the UM Performing Arts building. Rudy received the
first Governor’s Award in 1981, being named outstanding visual artist for the
state of Montana and was one of the “ most important people in Montana history”
by the Missoulian in 1999. He was named a Regent’s Master at the Northern Clay
Studio in Minneapolis, given a gold medal by the American Crafts Council and
recently given the Renwick’s Master of the Medium Award (part of the Smithsonian
Museum). Apart from being a masterful draftsman and ceramist, he demonstrated a
childlike curiosity for learning about the world in a myriad of ways. He used to
say that the creative process, the medium – painting, clay, or weaving --
doesn’t matter; all art is based on the strength of ideas. He encouraged success
in his students and always noted their achievements. He was instrumental in
bringing foreign students to the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena in exchange
for American students to Korea, Japan and Europe. Crossing the country in a VW
Beetle to New York City, and the Atlantic by oceanliner, he and Lela took their
family of four children in 1963 to see great artworks of Italy. The kids still
remember Dad teaching them rudimentary language lessons for their arrival. On
the return, he made sure that wonderful moments were noted, such as the
heartfelt greetings to America by hundreds of Italian immigrants on the decks of
the ship as it passed the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. He encouraged
his children and grandchildren to be committed to their pursuits, and he
fostered an environment of learning and creativity in the family home. One was
always likely to find a grandchild or two making clay pots beside him in his
studio, which were glazed and then fired in the same kiln as his work.
Enthusiastically he introduced his family to skiing, camping and sailing. He
could build anything: A cabin at Flathead Lake in 1965, fiberglass boats, the
sauna that came later, rock walls, and furniture. Many weekends were spent at
Flathead Lake, where he learned to sail and taught his kids to “prepare to turn
about,” admonishing them that when he wore the skipper’s cap he was the boss.
Surviving Rudy are his wife Lela and four children: Arne (MaryAnn), an
engineering assoc.; Lisa, a librarian and artist; Lar (Susan), a physician; and
Chris (Aprille), a photographer. Five grandchildren will also miss him greatly:
Lolly, Malia, Will, Chloe and Phoebe. Rudy’s lifelong desire was to provide
education for young people. Any donations to further this end should be sent to
the UM ceramics department or to the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena. Memorial
services are to be held later this summer: Missoula (-----) and in Helena, July
29 at the Archie Bray Foundation. __________________________________________
You will be missed!
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