The following was submitted in September of 2006 by Kathy Ditizio, who obtained the information from the artist.

Born May 5, 1941.

Education
1962 B.F.A. University of Pennsylvania and The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
1963 M.F.A. University of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
1977 PH.D. Oxford

Experience:
Professor of Art and Art History, St. Louis University; 31 years of teaching all periods of art history, painting, drawing, and sculpture;
Chairman and founder of the Department of Art and Art History
Member of the Executive Faculty
Member of Monuments Commission for St. Louis
Appointed to the Sesquicentennial Commission by the governor. of Missouri
Restored Cupples House and had it placed on the National Registry
Wide public Speaking, Lectures, Debates, Symposiums and Institutes
Member of the American Studies program at St. Louis University
Workshops in Mexico, Colorado, and Maine

Exhibitions:
Exhibited in over 250 regional, national and international shows; winner of numerous awards and prizes

Collections:
Over two-thousand works in public and private collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum, The Baseball Hall of Fame, U.S.Embassies in England, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, University of Rhode Island, University of Michigan, El Paso Museum, St. Louis University Winterthur Museum, Brandywine Museum, and others.

Over 150 Mural and Portrait Commissions

Artist Statement:
My work has been based on a sincere effort to understand and portray in a visual way the complexities of the human experience. I have tried to accomplish this through the use of the human figure and the environment we all live in. I am a romantic proficient in the sciences with a classical education that places great store in reason and the endless curiosity of the human spirit. The expression of our spiritual, intellectual and emotional roots that are kindred to all us has always been a driving force in, and for my work. I have been described as a magic realist, a mystic realist. I do think that early childhood experiences and teen age years growing up in New England imbued me with a view of the world that was similar to the Hudson River school and its great exponents such as Cole, Church and Durand. Having had a depression father, who was a poet at heart, and a mother who called us from the woods and fields to supper with her violin, the world of wonder was awakened early.

Unlike the Hudson River school painters, my work had emphasized the human figure with nature secondary or at least, equal. The romantic struggle was still on, man against nature, the wondrous war that has captivated the spirits of writers, painters and musicians for centuries. But as I have grown older, the figure has become smaller; the fragility of our environment has become to all of us a great concern. For the moment man has won; we can destroy what has inspired us all. The beauty of our natural World, or what is left has become the focus of my latest work whether in major pieces or plain air. The need to see, paint, learn has always been great, but even more so now. There is urgency and a hope in an artist that has hit middle age that his best work is to come.

Thomas N. F. Toner


Thomas Toner died on May 23, 2007. Following are excerpts from his obituary, written by his son, Sean F. Toner:

My dad, 66, died unexpectedly on May 23, 2007, while vacationing in Clearwater, Florida. He grew up in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the Malvern Prep School, where he ran track and played varsity football. Since I'm writing his obit, I can also reveal that he was in glee and the musical clubs. He also drove a '57 Merc convertible called the Mouth Mobile according to his yearbook.

He received his bachelor of fine art and master of fine art degrees in an unusual combined program from the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. At the Academy, he won the Cresson and Schiedt Memorial Scholarships to tour Europe in 1963 and 1964, as well as the Faculty Thouron prize, the M. Herbert Syme and the Cecilia Beaux prizes. He won a number of prizes at the Rittenhouse Square Art show in the early 60s, as well.

Dad joined the faculty of St. Louis University in the fall of 1964, where he quickly rose to chairman of the Art and Art history Department. He taught at St. Louis University until 1995.

His paintings show the influences of the Hudson River School, as well as Thomas Eakins and Salvador Dali, and have been labeled Magic Realism. Over the years, he refined his style, reflecting a masterful use of color and exquisite technique both in figurative works and landscapes. His works hang in the collections of the late Nate Richter, the May and Busch families, and other U.S. professionals and industrialists. His paintings have appeared in many universities, galleries as well as in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. He has run workshops in Copper Mountain (Colorado), Belize, and Maine.

He painted throughout his life, played tennis, and joined a writing group after moving to Dallas in 2004 despite being afflicted with diabetes and chronic inflammatory demylenating polyneuropathy in recent years. Since his Malvern Prep years, he had no problem playing injured.