Powell was a housemaster and art teacher at Eton and was himself a painter of watercolours.[5] He was also a mountaineer and met his death at Pontresina in an Alpine accident on Piz Roseg.[6]Cyril Alington, headmaster of Eton wrote.[7]
Piz Roseg above the Val Roseg
Eric Powell was a man of genius, which showed itself in many fields. The world perhaps knew him best as an oarsman, the winner of the Diamond Sculls, but there are others who think of his distinction in the Flying Corps and yet more to whom his wonderful talent as an artist made a stronger appeal. To watch the marvellous speed with which he transferred to paper the beauty which he saw with an unerring eye was a pleasure of which one never tired. In later years, he was developing an accuracy of detail and a variety of techniques, which seemed to hold the highest promise. Of what he did for drawing at Eton, it is impossible to speak too highly; and his success as one of the most popular and best beloved of house masters was so remarkable that it might have been grudged to anyone but him
