Jon Ruehle, Ph.D., a biology instructor at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts and a celebrated wildlife artist, died Saturday, Oct. 17, while in hospice care at CHI St. Vincent Hospital in Hot Springs.
Ruehle, 71, joined the ASMSA faculty in August 2005. Among the courses he taught at ASMSA were microbiology, AP Environmental Science, aquatic biology, zoology, immunology, developmental biology, neurobiology and botany. He served as the adviser for the Biology and Zoology Club, affectionately known as the “BoZo Club.”
No memorial service or funeral is planned, but ASMSA will hold a celebration of Ruehle’s life to allow students, colleagues and alumni an opportunity to pay tribute to him. Details will be shared at a later time.
In his ASMSA website biography, this question is posed: Is Ruehle a scientist doing art, an artist doing science or someone doing both?
Ruehle’s bio answers the question precisely and with detail that his students and colleagues would come to expect over the course of his career at ASMSA. “Science and art merge in his scholarly studies of morphogenesis and the genetic regulation of development complimented by his fieldwork and depiction of wildlife in bronze sculpture.”
Ruehle received his Ph.D. in plant developmental genetics from the University of California at Davis while his sculptures are in hundreds of public and private collections worldwide, including the National Academy of Design in New York City and the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyo. These two pursuits represent his fascination with how people understand their world.
Ruehle initially studied anthropology and the cross-cultural formation of personality at the University of California at Berkeley, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Molecular Genetics. From this, he intended to become an ethnobotanist studying indigenous health practices in South America until most graduate programs in the field shut down.
He returned to school following a successful career as an artist and completed his Ph.D. He taught at UC-Davis, St. Mary’s College of California, and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway before coming to ASMSA.
In cooperation with Dr. Lindsey Waddell, a chemistry and geoscience instructor at ASMSA, Ruehle founded the Research in the Park program in 2014. The program provides students an opportunity to conduct real-world research throughout Hot Springs National Park. Waddell and Ruehle established the program in an agreement with the National Park Service, creating an easier path for students to gain access to areas of HSNP for research.
The program was recognized in 2017 by the National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior as the recipient of the national George and Helen Hartzog Award for Outstanding Youth Volunteer Service Group for its work with Hot Springs National Park. In 2019, the program received the National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools Innovative Partnership of the Year Award.
Research in the Park was one of the first capstone courses that was developed to encourage students to get a start on their research from the outset of their ASMSA experience. All students at the time were required to complete a Fundamentals in Research Methods, or FIRM, project, but most of them would not begin their project until the second semester of their junior year.
Ruehle said the 2017 recognition by the National Park Service and the continued agreement to allow student research each year in HSNP speaks to the quality of students involved in the program and the research they conducted.
Ruehle broke down his approach to educating motivated students in a teaching statement on his LinkedIn profile.
“For me, the central components of teaching are the absolute confidence in the ability of all of my students, the consistent and equitable demand that students work to reach their potential, and the application of practical and creative means for students to grow and demonstrate their achievements,” he wrote.
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Ruehle was a professional sculptor since 1974, when he sold his first pieces to Zantman Art Galleries in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif. His works mostly focused on wildlife. For Ruehle, his sculptures provided an insight to how the animals actually live. Whether it’s a boar rubbing against a tree stump, a wolf on the hunt, a bear catching fish in a river, a sporting dog with a bird in its mouth or a bird in flight, his goal was to present that animal in a manner that showed them in their natural habitat, not in an idealized and artificial pose.
“I sculpt as part of my academic training and intellectual interest,” Ruehle said in a 2014 edition of the school magazine Tangents, adding that he always does extensive field and background research on an animal before he used it in one of his sculptures. “All of the pieces I do are demonstrating some kind of behavior, and it’s not just to depict some kind of carousel animal. So many pieces that you see that are wildlife art you can almost see the stake stuck up through their belly that goes up and down on the carousel. They don’t look like anything out in the wild.
“Somebody said once, and I thought this was the ultimate compliment, my sculptures are the kinds of things the animals would give each other for birthdays and Christmas.”
Ruehle credited capturing that natural action along with his unique approach to creating the mold to be cast in bronze for the popularity of his artwork. He shared his approach to bronze casting with ASMSA students in a 3D sculpture class during previous school years. He was pleasantly surprised at how well students learned his method to produce their own sculptures.
“The kids at the end of 12 weeks were about where I was after 15 years of work,” he said. “These kids are amazing. I told them what to do, and they go, ‘O.K., get out of the way. We’re going to do it.’”
Ruehle’s work has been featured in galleries around the world. In 2000, he was selected by an international panel of museum directors and art dealers as one of the 50 most influential contemporary wildlife artists in the world.
At least two Texas governors own complete collections of his pieces. Another was given to Walter Cronkite as a retirement present, he said. He has sold more than 2,000 pieces since the mid-70s, he said.
The University of Texas used a special edition of a longhorn bronze as gifts in recognition of major gifts to the school totaling at least $250,000. That inspired a program in which members of the ASMSA Founder’s Society received a limited edition bronze hog. Gifts of at least $50,000 earned donors membership into the society.
“The most heartfelt and impactful acknowledgments come from those who directly benefit from a donor’s generosity — ASMSA students,” said Vicki Hinz, who was serving as the director of institutional advancement at the time. “Dr. Ruehle’s teaching philosophy is inspiring and his desire to give back to the school and the students he loves by sharing his art of sculpting is an incredible gift.”
Ruehle provided bronzes of other statues for dignitaries and friends of the school who were recognized for their contributions to ASMSA including former Gov. Mike Beebe, who was given a wolf bronze, and Eric Jackson, former general manager of Oaklawn Racing and Gaming, who received a bronze stag.
As for the question posed in his biography of whether he was a teacher or an artist, Ruehle expounded on his answer in the 2014 Tangents article. He began drawing and painting at a very young age, and art was an early and constant influence on him throughout life, but he loved teaching as well.
“I’m a professional artist, and I’m a teacher by avocation. So I teach because I enjoy it. I sculpt because I have to,” he said.
The ASMSA Foundation is establishing an endowment honoring Ruehle that will support a new science award to be given to a graduating student each year. To make a gift to the memorial fund, visit https://asmsa.salsalabs.org/jonruehle.