Hank Ketcham, March 14, 1920 - June 1, 2001
Henry King Ketcham was born on March 14, 1920 in Seattle, where he grew up. He knew he wanted to be a cartoonist when he was six years old. He dropped out of college at the University of Washington in 1938 to go to Southern California and work for the creator of "Woody Woodpecker" and Disney.
Ketcham enlisted in the Navy during the second World War and drew cartoons for Navy posters, training material and war bond advertisements. After the war, Ketcham became a free lance cartoonists, and discovered his muse for "Dennis the Menace" from the antics of his four year old son, Dennis, whose mother declared him a menace. The cartoon strip debuted in 16 newspapers and was an instant success. Ketcham had a team of writers who helped him with ideas for the strip and kept those ideas new and the strip running.
Ketcham stopped writing the strip himself in 1994 and hired the team of Marcus Hamilton and Ronald Ferdinand to continue the strip for him. In March of 2001, the cartoon strip celebrated fifty years in print, having run in 1,000 papers, 48 countries and 19 languages. The cartoon strip was also made into books, a television show, a musical and a feature film. The t.v. show ran from 1959 til 1963 and starred Jay North as Dennis. The comic strip itself changed little over the years, Dennis never grew up but continued to torment Mr. Wilson, and still appeal to so many people.
Hank Ketcham died at his home in Pebble Beach on June 1, 2001 at the age of 81 from heart disease and cancer.