John Septimus “Jack” Sears was born in Salt Lake City in 1875.  He was an editorial cartoonist, newspaper writer, and long-time faculty member of the University of Utah department of art.  He died in Salt Lake City in 1969.

Sears studied with James T. Harwood from 1891 to 1893.  He then studied at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute in San Francisco for one year. In 1896, he began study with study with William M. Chase and Douglas Volk at the Art Students League in New York.  He returned to Salt Lake and worked as a cartoonist for The Salt Lake Tribune and The Deseret News in 1897.

Sears moved to New York at the turn of the century and worked for Bradstreet as a reporter and The New York Morning Telegraph and the New York Evening Journal as an illustrator.  He and his long-time friend Mahonri Young studied with Robert Henri, a major influence in the Ashcan School (1907–8), in a new study of artistic urban awareness.

In 1919, Sears returned to the University of Utah bringing his talents in graphic design and printmaking to his new position as an instructor.  After Edwin Evans resigned as chair in 1919, Sears and two other artists headed the art department. He remained at the University of Utah until 1943 years teaching and organizing the commercial art program.             

Biographical information on this page was adapted from Artists of Utah.