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Eighty-year-old Herron Alumnus Leads Weekly Sketch Class for Alumni

It's a dusky fall evening. Men and women gather in an old room with high ceilings, peeling paint and dusty floors at Herron School of Art. They pull out their materials, position their easels towards the evening's model, and greet one another in quiet voices. In the back, among splattered paint and scattered drawings sits the group&8217;s modest leader, eighty-year-old Charles Wharton.

Sixty years ago when Wharton was cleaning up after would-be artists at Herron, he never would have dreamed he would be leading a class there.

When the Herron Alumni Association initiated a sketch class for alumni in 1975, new graduate Charles Wharton volunteered his time to head it up without a second thought. Twenty-four years later, the class is still going strong and Wharton has rarely missed the weekly gathering. He's always there with a kind word and a smile, and of course cookies and refreshments for each class member.

"I always believe in treating another fellow the way that I want to be treated," he insists.

Wharton's love of art began as a teenager in the 1930s when he began helping a friend of his mother's who was a custodian at Herron.

"I'd be around Herron sweeping the floors…lookin'," remembers Wharton. "I became friends with a lot of the professors and I'd always watch them. My exposure at Herron filled me with the desire to draw."

Though that desire came to fruition in many aspects in his life - as a Battalion Draftsman in World War II and as a drafting student at Tuskegee Institute in the 40s-it wasn't until four decades later in 1970 that Wharton took his turn in the student's chair at Herron. Five years later at age 54 he completed his Fine Arts degree.

After graduating, Wharton began showing his art in area exhibits and returned to his high school to paint a beautiful mural for the Crispus Attucks Multicultural Center entitled "The Life of Dr. George Washington Carver." Four local schools claimed him as their Artist in Residence and he spent time as an art instructor both for The Children's Museum and from out of his home.

Today, Wharton enjoys painting portraits and has painted many local figures including Mayor Hudnutt and many family and friends. But, every Monday night he returns to his alma mater to refine his skill with a group of about other 15 Herron alumni.

At only $2 per class, it's a bargain. Wharton hires the model each week and the class members, some of whom have been coming for 20 years, get down to business.

"When you come, you come to draw. You don't come to play," he says. "There's no fooling around."

Well-known local artists Jean Love, Rosemary Brown-Beck, Patricia Montgomery and Lois Davis are longtime members of the class and have stashed away many drawers full of drawings.

1965 IU graduate Quin Paul has been attending the class for about three months. "I come to keep in practice. Just like you have to practice the piano all the time, you have to practice drawing all the time. I get rusty if I quit for a while."

"When they run out of fuel it's just like gassin' them up," says Wharton. "It's stimuli for them to continue the journey in their field."

IUPUI honored Wharton with the prestigious Hine Medal this year in recognition of his years of service to the school. He is also a member of the Herron Alumni Association and the Friends of Herron, a fundraising group.

"I've been at Herron practically all my life. It has meant a lot to me and I think of it like a little brother or sister." And Herron thinks of him just as affectionately.

"Charles Wharton has been a familiar face around Herron for many years," said Herron Dean Valerie Eickmeier. "He provides a great service to the school and the local alumni by organizing an activity that keeps us both connected."

And Wharton isn't planning to give up that activity anytime soon.

"Now that I am retired, I feel like I can do what I want to do and contributing my time to a good cause like Herron, I feel is well worthwhile."

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