Draft:George H. Rothacker

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George in a yellow suit in front of his studio in Radnor Pennsylvania.


George Henry Rothacker, III (born July 2, 1947) is an American artist and author.

Early life[edit]

Rothacker was born in Olean, New York in 1947.

After graduating from Upper Darby High School in 1965,[1][2] He went to Temple University,[3] where he studied mechanical engineering technology and interned at Stein Seal Company, United Engineers and Yarway Corporation and gained drafting skills.

Painting Career[edit]

Rothacker painted a large canvas of the Media Theatre in Media in 1991 as a fundraiser to save the facility from destruction.[4] Over the next eleven years he added eleven other portraits of movie houses to his portfolio and partnered with many of the towns to help maintain the theaters.

In February 2005, at the age of 58, Rothacker had his first one-person show at a mansion in a park in Radnor to benefit the Radnor High School Scholarship Fund. He featured 76 paintings, in plein air and from photographs, and earned more than $40,000 for the fund from the sale of paintings and prints.[3]

Through his relationship with Drew Saunders of the Newman and Saunders Gallery, Rothacker had several successful exhibitions of his work at the gallery in 2006, and 2009 including The Paintings of Eastern University.[3] He then partnered with other non-profits to launch shows of painting series including Havana‘59, an exhibit of paintings developed for a trip to Havana in 2009,[5] “New York in the 1930s,“ with the Church Farm School in 2013, and an exhibit of canvases featuring Movie and Music of Hollywood shown at the Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, and The Jimmy Stewart Museum in Indiana, Pennsylvania in 2014. In 2016 he was invited to stage a retrospective of his work at the Villanova Gallery at Villanova University[6][7] and in 2022, a 50th anniversary show of his art at both the Main Line Art Center in Haverford, Pennsylvania and the Community Arts Center in Wallingford, Pennsylvania.

Writing Career[edit]

In 2019 Rothacker decided to speculate about the recent advances in artificial intelligence writing his first novel Singularity 1.0,[3] using the theme “What will happen when AI realizes that it's smarter than humans?”

He followed that up with an autobiography paired with examples of the various stages of his artwork in The Diverse Artistic Universe of George H. Rothacker.[3] This was followed by the final novels of the AI trilogy, Singularity 2.0 - Finding Our Way Back to Humanity, and Singularity 3.0 - Sex in Space.

In 2021, Rothacker published a shorter speculative novel, Its a Wonderful Life 2060, based on the building of a model railroad that using small robots to re-enact the actions of the story of the Frank Capra 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life in an annex of the Jimmy Stewart Museum in the year 2060.[8][9][10]

In 2022, he released a longer story of three sets of individuals living forty years in the future, and in 2023 released a semi autobiographical novel, Comedy of Errors geared to young adults and stressing the need for tenacity, hard work and passion creating one’s dreams.[11]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Hostutler, Mark (2016-06-06). "Villanova University Art Gallery Hosts Exhibit of Delco's George H. Rothacker". DELCO.Today. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  2. ^ McCourt, Mark J. (2018-09-23). "George H. Rothacker". www.hemmings.com. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  3. ^ a b c d e Dukart, Lisa (2020-10-07). "George Rothacker's New Memoir Documents a Varied 50-year Career". Main Line Today. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  4. ^ Perry, Rachel (2008-04-02). "Reader of the Week: George Rothacker". Mainline Media News. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  5. ^ Pirro, J. F. (2012-06-27). "George Rothacker's "Havana '59": Hope for Cuba and Fundraising for Eastern University". Main Line Today. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  6. ^ "George H. Rothacker III". Villanova University. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  7. ^ "Villanova University Art Gallery hosts solo exhibit of Delco's George H. Rothacker". The Reporter. 2016-06-01. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  8. ^ Gianficaro, Phil (October 2021). "Wonderstruck". SuburbanLifeMagazine.com. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  9. ^ Bjorkgren, David (2021-11-06). "'It's a Wonderful Life' Reimagined in New George H. Rothacker Novel". DELCO.Today. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  10. ^ Thompson, Rachel (2021-11-21). "It's (Still) a Wonderful Life". County Lines Online. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  11. ^ Degrassa, Peg (2023-10-04). "Author George Rothacker to introduce new book at Delco Press Club Happy Hour". Delco Times. Retrieved 2024-01-05.