In 1975 internationally known wildlife artist Guy Coheleach (pronounced CO-lee-ack) donated five hundred black-bear-cub prints to establish a scholarship fund for students majoring in Wildlife and Fisheries Science in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. In 1986 he donated six hundred more prints to be sold to benefit the endowment and has made additional contributions. The donated prints have the embossed seal of the University of Tennessee.
Born on Long Island in 1933, he graduated from Cooper Union and has also received an honorary doctorate from the College of William and Mary. Coheleach’s paintings have received the Society of Animal Artists Award of Excellence eight times. He is an author and is the subject of four films. Two films aired on PBS in 2006, and two other films—Guy Coheleach and the Bald Eagle and Quest: An Artist and His Prey—have been shown on all three national television networks. Along with over a hundred one-man commercial shows in various cities, his work has been exhibited in the National Collection of Fine Art, the White House, the Corcoran Gallery, and the Royal Ontario Museum. Visiting heads of state have received his American Eagle print, and he was the first western artist to exhibit in Peking after World War II. Articles about him have appeared in Reader’s Digest, Saturday Evening Post, National Wildlife, and Wildlife Art News, as well as in numerous regional art and wildlife magazines.
At the University of Tennessee, his endowment provides about six full scholarships to the School of Wildlife Management each year.