Welcome to the web-gallery of Alfredo Escobar's graphite portraits and illustrations.
You may click on most works to see a larger image.

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Surrounded by photographs
of friends, models of fighter planes, captain's hats, weaponry, and
the computer where he is writing his memoirs, C. B. Harrison remembers
his days as a Command Pilot in the US Air Force. This son of a turpentine
distiller left his home in Hamilton County, Florida in 1947 to join
the Air Force, and flew both overt and covert operations in the Korean
and Vietnam Wars before his retirement. There are some missions that
he still is not allowed to mention, and he holds his loyal silence without
apology. "When you take something on, finish it," and "Each
crew member is responsible for the other guy," are the lessons
CB says he still uses from his days in the air. He wishes young
people could learn those lessons easily, but he figures that the only
way to get stronger is to carry a heavy enough load that one has to
depend on others. CB and his wife, Marilyn, came to visit us in Berea
after Marilyn took Jennifer's dulcimer class at John C Campbell Folk
School in July 1999. |

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The year was 1940 and Charles
Chibitty was a senior at Haskalini High School in Lawrence Kansas. Charles
and his friends, all full-blooded, card-carrying Comanche, knew that
war with Germany was inevitable, and they wanted to do something important
for freedom. Charles and fourteen other Comanche joined the war
effort as "Code Talkers," using their native Comanche language
as a code to transmit important messages across enemy lines. Charles
says of his war experiences in Europe, "Anybody that wasn't scared
as hell and didn't talk to the creator out there wasn't there."
Charles has received numerous honors, including a WWII Victory Medal,
European Theater of Operations Medal with five bronze stars, the Army
Good Conduct Medal, and the Chevalier de l'Ordre National de Merite.
The Comanche Nation honored Charles with a "Knights of the Plains"
saber, the highest honor a Comanche warrior can hope to achieve. We
met Chibitty at his home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. |
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"Hob"
Hobgood came to the United States when he was a child of eight, from Lotumbie,
Belgian Congo. He graduated from Lafayette High School in Lexington, Kentucky
and went on to earn a BA in English at Transylvania and an MA and MFA
at Western Reserve (now Case Western). He has directed theatre programs
at several prominent universities, retiring from U of I Champaign in 1991.
Hob met his wife, Jane Bishop, in the production of Wilderness Road in
Berea, and Hob went on to direct several outdoor dramas across the Eastern
US, including Lost Colony in North Carolina and Honey in the Rock in West
Virginia. He has enjoyed the opportunity to work with known actors and
directors such as James Earl Jones, Ed Sharon, Nan Martin and Alexander
Scorby, and is proud of the good work of his former students, Kathy Bates
(award-winning actress of Fried Green Tomatoes), Garland Wright (Director
of the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis), Steve Tobolowsky (TV actor), Alan
Rusk (Ferris Buellers Day Off), and Beth Henley (playwright). The
Hobgoods are longtime friends of our family. |

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Born the daughter
of a civil mining engineer on the West Virginia and Pennsylvania line,
Miss Mary Frances Davidson is full of stories. Her true stories of her
parents' courtship and marriage as well as her retelling of many events
in her life as a schoolteacher in White Sulphur Springs, Kentucky and
later Oak Ridge, Tennessee, are peppered with personal commentaries.
Of her early retirement from teaching high school math, she says, "As
soon as I could get rocking chair money, I quit!" Asked why she
never married, she replied seriously, "I never could find anyone
who could park their shoes under my bed that I didn't have to cook three
meals a day for!" Ambition and determination have taken Mary Frances
a long way - from the mining community of her birth to the University
of Kentucky and the graduate program at Duke University, to a full teaching
career. When she moved to her retirement home in Galtinburg, Tennessee,
Miss Davidson decided to become a master craftsman, setting out to become
an authority on weaving and dyeing. Today, at ninety-four years old,
this author of "The Dye Pot" and veteran instructor at Arrowmont
is using her time and resources to help the people in her church and
community create and achieve their dreams. |
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Mother Maggie Carter was
born in Valdosta, Georgia in 1915, and grew up as one of ten children
in a family of farmers. Working on a farm is good, honest work,
she says, and hopes that the younger generation will learn the value
of it before it is too late. Mother Maggie has certainly left a legacy
for the younger generation, with twenty-seven great grandchildren to
her credit. She lives in Maryland now, and we met her at a restaurant
in Springfield, Missouri in October 1999. |
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Per Boiesen (pronounced Pehr
Boy-sen) is a perfect example of how deep still waters can run.
He is a dairy farmer in Djursland, the north-eastern portion of Jutland,
Denmark. Although he says he doesnt speak English, be careful
what you say in his presence - for example, an unsuspecting person making
a remark such as I would sure like to try milking a cow by hand
someday, will find themselves out in the barn with their arm stuck
under Pers most obliging cow! When Per and Hennys son and
daughter-in-law called from their trip around the world to tell them
they would soon be grandparents, Per said, in English, with an enigmatic
smile on his face, Made in Australia! Per and Henny now
have three grandchildren, and they adopt us for an evening or two each
time we go to Denmark. |
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"If you're born in the
mountains, you're bound to end up in the mountains." Raleigh Adams
was born on Long Branch in the Cutshin Creek area of Leslie County,
Kentucky, the youngest of seven children. Although he was born in the
year of the stock market crash, his family never felt the effects of
the struggling American economy. "I grew up farming the hillsides,"
he explains, "We always had food to eat, clothes to wear . . .
we were self-sufficient." Raleigh left home to study at Appalachian
Bible College in Bradley, West Virginia, and spent time in the Army
before returning home to Cutshin to work as a miner at Blue Diamond
for eighteen years. Raleigh has black lung, but he doesn't let that
keep him from enjoying his wife, children, grandchildren and community.
He wishes no one had to deal with illnesses associated with mining,
and believes that mining, "if it's done right, wouldn't be that
unhealthy." Raleigh and his wife, Mary Jane were kind enough to
offer us a room at their home in October 1999 while we were visiting
the school where Mary Jane teaches.
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Wife, mother, grandmother,
doctors wife, author, church leader, and counselor are just a
few of the titles that come to the minds of those of us who know Roberta
Fry Schaeffer. Her thirty-eight years of working beside her husband
at Redbird Mission in Eastern Kentucky taught her that loving
people is the most important thing in life. . . more important than
salary, position, anything. She and Doc are enjoying their retirement
in Berea, celebrating fifty-seven years of marriage this year. Now
Doc works for me, Roberta says, giving him complete credit for
the fact that she looks so good. And how does Doc feel about that? Shes
the only house call I make now . . . and I love her better now than
when I married her, he says, with a happy grin and sparkling eyes. |

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Described as a Humor bomb
by his friends, Vagn Christiansen (pronounced Vown) is an
unforgettable person. Vagn was born one of ten children near the Limfjord
in Northern Denmark, and had his first job when he was just eleven years
old. He has always enjoyed solitude in work, from his three years as a
fisherman to the twelve years he spent as a butcher to the custodial work
he does now. But solitude in work is enough for Vagn, and during off hours
he is the life of the party. When asked what he has gained from all his
different life experiences, he replied, Ive done a whole lot
and known a whole lot of girls! Hes been settled on one of
those girls for thirty years, though, a sweet lady named Marie. |
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Most people know Charley as
a craftsman who makes Shaker furniture and oval boxes, and others know
him as a wild and crazy Contra Dancer. Dance has shaped me as much
as my craft - dance is the way I plug into the community, Charley
says. Charleys development as a craftsman started when he wrote
in his diary at sixteen years old, I believe I am supposed to be
a craftsman, but in this day and age its impossible. Traveling
through Berea in 1978 inspired him to try the impossible, when he saw
successful crafts people like woodworker, Warren May making a living doing
what they loved. Charley has carved a place for himself in the Berea landscape
since moving into town in 1980 and being, to quote Charley directly, Too
dumb to quit. Perhaps Charleys heritage of strong-willed ancestors
has helped his resolve to stay focused. He comes from a long line of pioneers;
his fathers family includes the colonial governor of Virginia and
his mothers family came to Canada in 1640. We have known Charley
since he came to Berea and, in 1981, made Jennifers first dulcimer. |
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Being born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
the son of a Scottish steelworker and a German missionary was an appropriate
beginning for Richard Ramsay. After earning a degree from Berea College
and a PhD in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina, Dick
went to Mexico with the Friends Service Committee. His work with the Otomi
Indians kept him in Mexico for the majority of the next forty years. When
he was at home in the United States, he involved himself with important
national issues, such as the Civil Rights battles of the 1960s -
even being imprisoned once with Martin Luther King for passive resistance.
His dedication to both Mexican and American people is an inspiration to
all service-oriented individuals who share his dream of a world united
in mutual caring. Dick and his brothers are the original reasons for this
series - Alfredo decided to draw them in commemoration of their being
together last summer, to give Dick a proper send-off as he retired to
Mexico. |
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Born the son of a strongly religious
steelworker who became a noted leader in the formation of labor unions,
William Ramsay grew up in the thick of the struggle for workers
rights in America. Bill met and married an East Tennessee girl named Rose
Moore while they were both students at Berea College, and, after serving
in the military for two years, they settled down to their vocations: raising
six children and furthering the cause of service learning in higher education.
Bill Ramsay became Dean Ramsay of Berea College in 1970, when
he returned to his alma mater to serve as Vice President for Student Life
and Dean of Labor. His philosophy for work and service, You should
try to make your work a vocation of service, and his consistent
standing for right has won him the respect of all who know him, especially
his daughter, Jennifer, and son-in-law, Alfredo! |
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John Martin Ramsay is the oldest
son of the Ramsay trio featured in the show. He was the first of the brothers
to attend Berea College, where he became involved with the Berea College
Country Dancers and also worked in the College Dairy. John went on to
earn a PhD in Agriculture and teach at both the high school and college
levels before returning to Berea College as Director of Recreation Extension.
His interest in indigenous cultures and involvement with the Quaker community
and the Peace Movement have made him aware of the human spirit in a very
special way. Somehow amidst the busy-ness of his retirement and substitute
teaching in Saint Louis, Dr. John (Uncle John, to us!) continues to work
with community recreation and folk dance and finds time to write his thoughts
on spirituality and other things he considers thought-worthy. |