Robert Watkins - Mystery Solved!

Wow - now that didn't take long.

Barbara Bradley remembered Robert Watkins from her time in New York: "I wasn't sure if I remembered him from Cooper's or from Y & R, where my husband worked," wrote Barbara in a note to me yesterday. So I checked with Bob [Jones]. It was Cooper's. Here's this reply..."


"Hi Barbara

Here's what I know about Bob Watkins. He graduated from Chounards -- Pruett Carter was his mentor and his teacher in one of Bob's illustration classes. He came to Coopers in the early to mid fifties. Chuck hired him as an illustrator and his work was very inventive but was more in the graphic area. He then became a designer, art director with a wonderful illustrators ability. He and his family later on moved to San Francisco. There he became an award winning art director at one of the larger agencies in the Bay Area.

Getting back to the album cover. This work is a total departure from what I remember of Bob's illustrations at Cooper's in the fifties -- but you know what they say about old timers. They reinvent themselves to make it work.

Bob and I were close friends and I remember the great times we had working together at Coopers.

I hope this is some help.

Bob"

It sure was! My thanks to both Barbara and Bob for filling in the blanks on another teriffic artist who might otherwise have gone undocumented. I'll be keeping an eye out for more work by Robert Watkins - hopefully we haven't seen the last of him with this one album cover.