About |
He was born on November 5, 1908, at his parent’s home, located at 2437 Thrush Avenue, St. Louis, Mo. Grossenheider attended local schools and then started to build up his working acquaintance with animals during seven years as a St. Louis Zoo employee. He performed a variety of duties with the Zoo, but worked mostly with the birds. He worked in order to provide his tuition to the University of Michigan. While at the Universty of Michigan, he met and improved his painting skills under the world famous bird painter, Dr. George Sutton. Dr. William H. Burt, University of Michigan, asked Grossenheider to illustrate "Mammals of Michigan, a work which immediately became the standard reference work on mammal life histories. Several years later, Dr. Burt and Mr. Grossenheider again teamed up to produce "A Field Guide to the Mammals," one of the Peterson Field Series by Houghton Mifflin Company. The Field Guides' popularity is indicated by six printings of this book. Mr. Grossenheider has also had his works appear in "Life and "Audubon" Magazines and Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, ect.. Grossenheider was a unique combination of naturalist and artist. Dr. Sutton said,"His paintings possess that rarest of quality--the life spark."