Arthrur C. Krummel, Jr.
Art Krummel, sometimes known as Art the Artist, passed away in his sleep at his home in Tallmadge on April 6. He was 80, and he had lived a good life - one filled with lots of love, laughter and family.
Art spent 40 years working at the Akron Beacon Journal as a cartoonist, illustrator, art director and graphic designer. During that time, he designed and illustrated the cover page of two story packages that would win Pulitzer Prizes for the paper - one about a failed takeover attempt at Goodyear and the other about race relations in Akron.
At the time of his retirement in 2001, he was in charge of technology for the newsroom. He subsequently worked with and mentored young journalists at the Buchtelite, the University of Akron’s student paper.
Even as a young boy, Art - officially Arthur C. - knew he wanted to be an artist. He would use the change he saved from running errands to buy brushes. He would hang out at local commercial art studios. He took the lead for school art projects. He would paint and draw whenever he had a canvas and an opportunity.
In the early ‘60s, he and a friend hitchhiked to the West Coast, working there as itinerant strawberry pickers and loggers and selling magazine subscriptions. (Art was fired from the magazine job for doodling on the wall while he worked.)
He returned home to Akron, got a job as a copy boy (filler of glue pots and fetcher of coffee) at the Beacon. He worked briefly in shipping for a subsidiary of the paper and then joined the Beacon editorial art department in 1967. He later earned a degree in fine art from the University of Akron.
Art will be remembered as a kind man, someone with patience and a willingness to help others. He was also quick to share a funny story.
He dabbled not only in oils but in other forms of art. He was a past president of the Akron-Canton Bonsai Society. He built and landscaped a pond in his back yard. He was a lover of street-corner doo-wop. For years he would drag his family to second-hand stores to scrounge for 45s for his juke box.
Art and his wife, Charlene Nevada, were married more than 52 years. They met at the newspaper, where she was a reporter. In typical 1970s fashion, he wore a gold crushed-velvet suit to his wedding, and she wore a pink crushed-velvet mini skirt and go-go boots. Their marriage certainly outlasted their fashion sense. They were and will always be best friends.
Together they raised two great kids: Jason (wife Kaycee) of Colchester, Conn., and Beth Meese (husband Thad) of Hudson. Art loved his grandchildren: Julia and Hannah of Hudson and Aubrey and Paxton of Connecticut. He also leaves a sister, Carol Scarpitti of Stow/Hudson; brother Ken Krummel of the Portage Lakes area; brother-in-law Pete Nevada of Marysville, lots of nieces and nephews, and dozens of special cousins.
Art used to say that going to work at the newspaper was like Christmas morning every day: another challenge, another gift - another a chance to do what he so much enjoyed.
And on the subject of enjoyment, one of the things Art most liked was beer. On the night he died, he got out of his recliner to snatch a Labatt from the fridge. When morning came and he was gone, the can was partially empty. To Art we toast.
Services are being handled by Newcomer Funeral Home in Akron. There will be a memorial service in early June.