Earl W Bascom

Vocation

American painter, printmaker, rodeo performer and sculptor, raised in Canada, who portrayed his own experiences cowboying and rodeoing across the American and Canadian West. He spent his early years on the ranch of his parents. After their mother’s death in 1912, the family moved to Raymond, Alberta, Canada, where their father had been hired as a manager on the Ray Knight Ranch. The Bascom brothers worked with their father on the ranch. Around 1933, Earl W. Bascom entered Brigham Young University, majoring in fine arts and graduating about 1940. He also spent summers working on various ranches in Canada and the United States to earn extra money for his education. In 1935 he moved to Columbia, Marion County, Mississippi, to work on the Hickman Ranch. During his three years on the ranch, Bascom helped to organize the first rodeo in Mississippi, as well as the first nighttime rodeo. Bascom married Nadine Diffey of Columbia about 1939. The Bascoms and their children, Denise, Dona, Doris, Glen, and John A., eventually settled in Victorville, California. Bascom was a rodeo participant for twenty-three seasons and later promoted the sport by making brief motion picture and television appearances. He received many honors, including induction into the Canadian Rodeo Hall of Fame and the Utah Sports Hall of Fame. Bascom also invented several pieces of rodeo equipment. Achieving fame as a sculptor, Bascom was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London in 1993. He was also an ordained bishop and patriarch of the Mormon church. Bascom died of congestive heart failure at his ranch in Victorville on 28 August 1995. (Biography source) Link to Wikipedia biography