Peers, Gordon Franklin, 1909-1988

Gordon Franklin Peers was born March 17, 1909 to Sanford and May (Hallett) Peers in Easton, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Classical High in Providence (RI) in 1929, and then attended Rhode Island School of Design 1929-1933, receiving a diploma in 1933. He was a student at the John R. Frazier Summer School of Painting 1930-1935, and attended the Beaux Arts Academy and the Arts Students League in New York, 1933-1934. He exhibited his paintings at the 1939 New York World's Fair, the Golden Gate International Exposition, the Providence Art Club, and the Decordova Museum, among others. In 1947 he received his B.F.A. from RISD, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws, L.L.D., by the Portland School of Art in 1982.

Peers joined the RISD staff as a drawing instructor in 1933, and taught there for over forty years, with brief interruptions in 1936-1937 to teach in the art department at Rockford College in Illinois, and from 1942-1945 to serve in the U.S. Army. He became a full professor in the Painting Department in 1960 and in 1961-1962 was chief critic in residence in Rome for the European Honors Program. An avid traveler, he also visited Japan, England, France, Denmark, Germany, Russia, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan, documenting his trips with slides and travel journals.

He served as head of the Painting Department 1955-1956 and 1963-1968; as Acting Chairman of the Division of Fine Arts 1962-1963, 1963-1965, and first semester, 1965-1966; and as Chairman of the Division of Fine Arts 1969-1972. He achieved tenure in 1965. As the meeting minutes in Box 1, Folder 3 and 4, attest, he constantly strove to improve the Fine Arts curriculum. He was always open to innovative teaching strategies, including an art department TV show in 1957. He was an early proponent of interdisciplinary studies, an interest dating back to 1959.

Much of his thinking on the subject of art pedagogy was influenced by his friend and mentor, RISD instructor and president John R. Frazier. Peers collected Frazier's writings, wrote a brief biography, and took slides of Frazier's paintings. Peers also admired and was influenced by the work of Florence Leif, a fellow RISD painting student whom he married in 1941. After her death in 1968, he funded a RISD scholarship for female painters in her honor. He continued to promote interest in her life and work with public and private showings of her paintings, and in 1981 established another scholarship for female painters at the Portland Museum of Art.

Peers retained close ties to RISD for his entire life. After his retirement in 1974, he was appointed Artist in Residence, a position he kept until his death on July 1, 1988. As Artist in Residence he continued to teach students and advise the Painting Department on appointments, offering the accumulated experience of nearly sixty years association with RISD.

From the guide to the Gordon Franklin Peers papers, Peers (Gordon Franklin) papers, 1853-1988, bulk 1927-1988, (Rhode Island School of Design Archives)