Silas Rhodes
Silas H. Rhodes (September 15, 1915 – June 27, 2007) was an American educator and co-founder of a trade school for illustrators and cartoonists that eventually became the School of Visual Arts, one of the premier U.S. colleges for art and design. Early life and education Rhodes was born and raised in the Bronx, New York City. His mother ran a failed wholesale egg business and his father worked for the U.S. Post Office as a postal clerk. Rhodes employed both of his parents in the administrative departments of the School of Visual Arts later in his life. Rhodes received his bachelor's degree from Long Island University. He continued his education and obtained a master's degree from Columbia University. Rhodes wrote his dissertation on poet Robert Burns. He originally intended to become an English teacher, not a cartoonist. Military service Rhodes enlisted in the U.S. Army following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He flew several missions with the Army's 1st Air Commando Group in China, Burma and India. Rhodes obtained a job with the Veterans Administration after World War II. Rhodes, along with illustrator Burne Hogarth, persuaded the VA to support an art school specifically to help veterans returning from the war. The school came to be known as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, an expansion of Hogarth's Manhattan Academy of Newspaper Art. Founding the School of Visual Arts Rhodes and Hogarth (best known for the comic strip Tarzan) along with James Boyle, founded the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in 1947. Most of the school's initial students were World War II veterans and Hogarth fans who worked during the day and enrolled in night courses. Many of his students had goals of breaking into advertising or publishing. The school was largely financed by the G.I. Bill and started with three faculty, including Rhodes, and 35 students. Rhodes helped to craft a curriculum that emphasized a liberal arts education with humanities courses, as well as the traditional studio arts classes. Rhodes and Hogarth changed the name of the trade school to the School of Visual Arts in 1955. McCarthy era Both Rhodes and Hogarth were summoned to Washington D.C. in 1956 as part of a United States Senate subcommittee investigation of suspected Communists. The Senate subcommittee was specifically trying to investigate whether Communist ideology had infiltrated vocational schools which were financed by the federal government, such as the School of Visual Arts. Rhodes and Hogarth were asked whether they were members of the Communist Party. Both stated to the Senate that they had not been members of the Communist Party since the founding of the school in 1947. However, they invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked about Communist involvement prior to the founding of the school. Senator Joseph McCarthy stated that their refusal to testify proved that both were Communists. Rhodes was quoted as saying to McCarthy, "I'll match my record against yours any day in the service. That's a horrible thing to say." McCarthy responded to Rhodes