The son of Lithuanian immigrants, illustrator Ed Vebell began his life as an artist at the age of 14, training as a draftsman at a special art school. His budding career was interrupted by World War II, when he enlisted in the United States Army, but he soon resumed his passion by creating artwork for the military magazines Stars and Stripes and Yank. Following the conflict he attended the Nuremberg Trials in 1945 as a courtroom artist, his drawings eventually ending up in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. His next stop was Paris where he worked as a freelancer out of his own illustration studio. By this time he had become well known as both an illustrator and an épée fencer and, upon his return to the United States, he was granted the opportunity to pursue both interests. For the latter his most notable accomplishment was an appearance at the 1952 Summer Olympics, where he made it to the semi-finals of the individual event and the quarter-finals of the team tournament. Although he intended to attend the 1956 and 1960 editions, a detached retina and a newborn child respectively scuttled his chances. At the 1951 Pan American Games he won gold with the foil team (with Albert Wolff, Tibor Nyilas, Byron Krieger, Nate Lubell, and Joe de Capriles), silver with the épée team (with Albert Wolff, Frederick Weber, Byron Krieger, Nate Lubell, and Joe de Capriles), and bronze in the individual épée. In addition to his freelance work for numerous American publications, Vebell has also designed sixteen stamps for the United States Postal Service and remained active in the art community of Westport, Connecticut until his death.
United States