Frank Leroy Engle of Alabama, originally from Illinois and Indiana was born in Peoria County Illinois on June 9, 1916 to Walter and Nina Engle. He had two older brothers, Norman and Walter Lee. A younger brother, Morris, was born about 18 months later. Walter was a farmer with a fifth grade education. Nina was originally from Vivay Indiana on the Ohio River. They met at a "camp meeting" or revival. She finished high school and to supplement the family income became a seamstress. Frank spent most of his childhood in Indiana and graduated from Anderson High School in 1935.

Lee died at age 18 of "lock jaw" (tetanus). This affected 15 year old Frank profoundly. He finished high school and worked his way into John Herron Art School (now part of Indiana University in Indianapolis). Eventually Frank was head of the Experimental Pattern Department for Lockheed in LA during WW2. He left LA and was the owner of Engle Studios in Newberg Indiana after the war. He sold the business and moved to Iowa to teach and in 1949 took a position at the University of Alabama where he remained, retiring in 1980.

His first wife was Naneen Queen, an artist. They had two children, Melody and Walter. Later they divorced and Frank married Bethany Windham, also an artist. Together they had one daughter, Eve.

Frank passed away on February 20, 2002.

Accomplishments:
*Graduated from Herron School of Art.
*Won the prestigious Mary Millikan Scholarship Award.
*Head of the Experimental Pattern Department Lockheed, LA CAL.
*Created the Ford Motor Co. emblem for the first cars off the assembly for consumer use at the end of WW2.
*Created the University of Arkansas razorback "hat".
*Created fountain in front of the athletic dorm at UA (destroyed)
*Created fountain at The Racket Club, Tuscaloosa (destroyed)
*Commissioned by Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Tuscaloosa Al
(http://kofctuscaloosacouncil4083.org/hsartp.htm)
*Commissioned by Jack Warner for the Northriver Yaught Club
*Commissioned by Winton Blount Collection of American Art
*Private collections include the Carl Menniger Collection, Topeka KS

From "A History of the Catholic Church in Tuscaloosa Alabama"
"After the war, he opened Engle Studios in Los Angeles and Newberg, Indiana, where his designs included the well-known red, white and blue crest, which was for many years the emblem of Ford Motor Company. His works were handled by such stores as Nieman-Marcus, Gumps, Macy’s, Marshall Field’s, Hudson’s, I. Magnin, and Wanamaker’s, as well as by individual decorators. His works were often used in magazine advertisements and for sets in the motion picture industry, and commissioned by such hotels as the Shamrock in Houston.

Engle joined the faculty at the University in 1949. His works have been recognized nationally and internationally in the United States and Mexico and are included in such collections as the Blount Collection of American Art, Blount International Headquarters, Warner Collection, Louisiana State University Collection, and Mississippi University for Women Collection, Evansville University Collection and the Collection of the Butler Institute of American Art. He participated in the 1991 Alabama Biennial sculpture exhibition and the 1993 Sculpture Garden II in Chattanooga. In 1994 he was presented the Distinguished Career Award by the Society for the Fine Arts and the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Alabama."