Edward James Fraughton (March 22, 1939 – June 2, 2024) was an American artist, sculptor, and inventor. He is primarily known for his works and individual collector editions related to the history of the American West. A literal sculptor with an academic background in design and human anatomy, Fraughton's versatility covers a broad spectrum of human and animal subjects.
Education
Fraughton attended Marsac Elementary School and in 1957 graduated from Park City High School. Entering the University of Utah as a civil engineering student, Fraughton later changed his major to sculpture and graduated in 1962 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree.[1] While there, he studied, served as a student teaching assistant, assisted in the gross anatomy lab and did his post graduate work under the legendary Dr. Avard Fairbanks and his son, Justin. He also played baritone horn in the university marching and concert bands.
Professional career
Following his formal education, which he largely financed by working night shifts at local steel fabrication plant, Fraughton struggled to make ends meet by working in sales, serving as a substitute high school teacher, driving truck as a delivery boy, and laboring as a foundry worker in a local bronze casting facility. In 1966, he was hired by Thiokol Chemical Corporation to apply his artistic training at the newly opened Job Corps Center in Clearfield, Utah. Managed by the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), Job Corps was an initiative launched by the Lyndon B. Johnson administration to fight the "War on Poverty". After the first year of operations, on August 22, 1967, Fraughton received a letter from W. C. Hearnton, assistant director of avocational training, stating in part:
For nearly three months after reporting for work here at Clearfield, he [referring to Fraughton] was the only member of the Arts and Crafts Department. During this three-month period, he wrote and secured OEO approval for the curriculum that we are now offering to our Corpsmen population.
Out of the one hundred and fifty (150) Job Corps Centers located throughout the United States, our program is viewed by OEO as the best in existence. In no small measure, the success of our program can be attributed to the professional competence and know-how of Mr. Fraughton.
Resigning from the Job Corps in 1967 to launch his full-time career as a professional sculptor, Fraughton's first sculpture commission involved creating a series of historical portraits for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1968, he was commissioned by the Sons of Utah Pioneers and Mormon Battalion associations to create a heroic monument commemorating the Mormon Battalion's trek from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to San Diego during the 1846–1847 Mexican–American War. His 12-foot Mormon Battalion Soldier stands at the highest point in San Diego's Presidio Park.
One of Fraughton's most recent works involves a ten-year collaborative effort with fellow sculptors, Kent Ullberg and Blair Buswell. Commissioned by the First National Bank of Omaha,[4] the heroic bronze installation titled, Nebraska Wilderness and Pioneer Courage, depicts an American pioneerwagon train moving west through Nebraska's wilderness during the mid-19th century. Encountering a herd of wild American bison, the animals quickly turn and run through the city streets toward the bank's new 40-story office building. As the buffalo approach an elevated pond and fountain facing the building's front entrance, a flock of Canada geese explode from the water, fly around the surrounding air space and through the windows of a glassed-in atrium housing the building's historic facade. The geese slowly morph from traditional bronze into modern polished stainless steel as they enter the building. The artistic effect and integration of all elements create a unique and startling effect in the world of contemporary realist sculpture. This project is the largest single installation of monumental sculpture in North America, the linear space covering an area of approximately five city blocks.
Another more recently completed monument depicts an ancient ancestral rock-climbing Puebloan Indian descending a sheer narrow column of sandstone with a basket of corn. Indicative of the ancient cliff-dweller culture of the American Southwest, the twenty-foot high monument graces the new visitor's center and museum entrance of Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez, Colorado.
Inventor
Following a mid-air collision over the Salt Lake Valley in 1987 that destroyed two airplanes and claimed ten lives, Fraughton, a pilot, invented and patented[5] a new technology for tracking aircraft. This technology, now most popularly known as ADS-B, uses GPS satellite tracking to find and report aircraft positions. Fraughton's U.S. patent, (number 5,153,836)[6] and foreign patents[7] were issued in 1992. Subsequently, he served on several committees associated with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), most notably the original ADS committee and Special Committee 186[8] of the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics. ADS-B has recently been announced as the FAA's system of choice to upgrade and replace the outdated radar based air traffic control technology.
In the field of sculpture, Fraughton has developed an improved method for enlarging his sculpture into monumental scale. Using digital imaging and CNC cutting, his technique allows positive clay components to be produced to any scale with greater integrity, thus improving efficiency during the direct modeling stage.
