Bill Giersbach

Dave Conine writes:

I am sad to report that Bill Giersbach died in late December at his home in Tucson, Arizona. Bill was not only my HS assmate, he and I were also classmates at The Cooper Union in New York.  For the past several years Bill was retired and living in Tucson. We had phone conversations several times a year. In November I visited Bill in Tucson. We had a great afternoon reminiscing about high school and college, about friends and our adventures and misadventures in the decades since we last got together. We joked, laughed, and soberly reflected on the insanity of our nation’s political leadership. Even though I had not seen Bill in more than two decades our conversation picked up, like the two curmudgeons we are, not missing a beat in critiquing all the craziness we observe in the worlds of government, art and architecture, the media, and damn near everything else.   Bill and I enjoyed a short hike in the saguaro-covered hills west of Tucson. We planned to meet up to hike in the red rock canyon country of southern Utah in the spring.

Bill’s brother Walter C. Giersbach, MHS ’57, sent this obituary: 

Bill was born on Dec. 23, 1941, and grew up in Forest Grove, Oregon, a small town west of Portland, before moving with the family to South Pasadena, Calif., and then east to Montclair, N.J. After graduating from Montclair High School in 1960 he was accepted at The Cooper Union in New York City where he was awarded a B.F.A. in 1964. Several years later, he and his wife and daughter moved to Albuquerque where he was awarded an M.A. from the University of New Mexico. This led to a post teaching art at Williams College for seven years in the 1970s. He was considered by many of his students to be a truly gifted teacher. Returning his family to New York City, he worked on his art and held a series of jobs including a long-term position in the production department of Time-Life. In 1998 he retired to Tucson, Arizona. Bill’s work was primarily sculptural and literary. He made three-dimensional still lifes of books and other incidental objects—mostly ephemera. These objects were carefully painted to look deceptively real. Images and text painted onto the sculptures were entirely invented.  Subjects, often quite prosaic, ranged from strange religious and scientific phenomena to the geography of non-existent places and to the alienation of modern man. He participated in several major international exhibits including Documenta 6 in Kassel, Germany. His work was shown in museums and galleries in Teheran, Iran; Paris, France; Tokyo, Japan; and New York City, as well as other venues. His work is in several collections including the Center for Book Arts in New York and the Smithsonian Libraries in Washington, D.C. In a review of his work at New York’s 55 Mercer Street Gallery, the New Yorker said, “For a quarter of a century this gifted, eccentric artist has been exploring the aesthetic terrain where thought and image converge. His painted books, maps and cards bristle with Duchampian humor.”  Bill is survived by his daughter Cadence and grandson Lucian, his son Jamin, and his brother Walter. 

Walt Giersbach, MHS '57, Bethel, CT

Phone:  203-792-1808;