The following is from the artist's daughter, Donna Von Allman:

Don Louis Ruf was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1905. His early years were marked by frequent excursions into the largely untouched and unspoiled lands that then surrounded the city. Encouraged by his sign-painter father, Ruf took his first tentative steps as an artist to capture a part of that beauty with the only medium close at hand: paint and brush.

While in high school, Ruf became acquainted with art teacher Augustus W. Dunbier, who felt Ruf demonstrated sufficient talent to pursue art seriously. With the encouragement of Dunbier, Ruf applied to and was accepted into the school of art of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1924, where he studied for four years.

With the stock market crash in 1929 and the start of the Depression, Ruf's plans to pursue a career as a painter were sidetracked; and. In order to maintain a steady income during this perilous period, Ruf accepted a position in the art department of the Montgomery Ward catalog department. During this period, Ruf joined with a group of talented young artists in Chicago, interspersing his commercial work with frequent fine art painting junkets throughout the continent, especially to Old Mexico and the southwestern United States.

In 1931 Augustus Dunbier, an art teacher in Omaha, wrote to Ruf and suggested that they spend the summer painting in Navajo country in northern Arizona. They spent five months in the Southwest, painting in Navajo and Hopi country in northern Arizona and finished their excursions in Taos, New Mexico.

While in Taos, Ruf met and painted with some of the great artists of the Southwest, including Walter Ufer, Leon Gaspard, Nicoli Fechin, and Martin Hennings. His paintings during this period vividly reflect his life-long penchant for "getting off the beaten path" to live and study his subjects at close range.

Taos also proved to be the place where Ruf found his greatest inspiration and where he returned repeatedly until the end of his life. When he first visited Taos, he found it to be unspoiled and primitive. There were no traffic signals, and the Indians traveled into town on horseback or in wagons. There was a hitching post on the southeast corner of the plaza, and Ruf found this to be an excellent place to sketch the horses and wagons standing there.

In 1934, Ruf traveled with Dunbier to Mexico City, Taxco and Acapulco. Because of the low cost of living in Mexico at that time, they were able to spend six months painting there.

In 1935, Ruf met a talented young Hungarian artist, Joseph Feher, who suggested that they travel to the South Seas to paint. After finding an ad for the Dollar Steamship Line, Ruf invested the $750 fare and embarked on an around-the world, one-year trip. Their initial stop was the Puna Coast on the big island of Hawaii, which was, at that time, still populated with the few remaining "pure" native Hawaiians.

After six months sketching and painting Hawaii, Feher returned to Chicago, and Ruf continued on his around-the world excursion, traveling to Yokahama, Japan, China, Malay, India, Egypt and Europe. During the next nine months, he experienced first hand, and was able to sketch and paint, the feudal societies then extant in the Malay Peninsula; the agonized peoples of a starving China; the frenetic militants of a rising Japan, and the ancient art treasures of Egypt.

Fortunately for Ruf, whenever he returned from his travels, his job in the art department at Montgomery Wards was waiting for him. Then, in 1937, he married Mildred Quist. After spending their four-month honeymoon in Taos, New Mexico, where Ruf painted every day, they returned to Chicago to settle down. His daughter, Donna Louise, was born in 1938 and his son, Don Charles was born in 1940.

With the responsibilities of married life and children, Ruf accepted the position of Art Director for one of America's foremost advertising agencies, Foote, Cone & Belding. He spent ten years with Foote, Cone & Belding; then spent the next 15 years as Art Director at the Leo Burnett Advertising Agency.

Ruf retired from Leo Burnett in 1970, moved back to his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, and was able to devote full time to his painting. Every September, Ruf would return to Taos to concentrate on his old love for the Southwest and the Indian tribes of that region.

While a student at the Art Institute of Chicago, Ruf won the Janus-Hunt Award. He also won many awards in Chicago and New York during the years he was Art Director at Foote Cone & Belding and at Leo Burnett. Ruf has exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Kansas City Art Institute, Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Shepard's Art Gallery in Shanghai, China. He was awarded numerous cash prizes and ribbons at local art shows in his native Omaha.

Ruf died in September of 1982 during one of his annual painting trips to Taos, New Mexico, the place he most loved to return to and to capture in his work. One of his works is now on permanent display at the Van Vechten-Lineberry Taos art Museum.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Don Ruf was an avid hunter and developed a great and talent love for landscape painting. His art talent was encouraged by his sign-painter father and later by his art teacher, Augustus Dunbier, with whom he took many painting trips including to the Southwest and Mexico.

From 1924-1928, he studied at the Chicago Art Institute and then worked in Chicago as a commercial artist. In the mid-1930s, he took a one-year trip around the world, painting in Hawaii, the Orient, and Egypt, and even becoming a bull fighter in Spain. Shortly after that, he joined Dunbier on a sketching trip to Arizona where they camped at the Grand Canyon.

Returning to Chicago, he married and became art director for advertising companies. He did numerous watercolor paintings of Lake Michigan, where he also navigated as a skilled sailor. From 1970, he devoted himself full time to his painting and lived in Nebraska and made many return trips to Taos.

Source:
Roger Dunbier, son of Augustus Dunbier and friend of Don Ruf