Lecture Speakers

Clarence Simonsen

Clarence was born in a small farmhouse six miles from the village of Acme, Alberta, on 24 March 1944. During the 1955 postwar RCAF era, he watched bright yellow Harvard trainers fly over the farm on the last leg of their instructor’s course from Medicine Hat to Penhold, Alberta.

The loud distinctive engine sound left a lasting impact on this young farm lad. With a born artistic talent his school books were soon full of drawings of aircraft and the RCAF in time of war.

In his early teens, Clarence had his first exposure to Playboy magazine and the art of Alberto Vargas, which subsequently led him to discover the world of aircraft nose art and the use of the pin-up girl in the Second World War. In 1962, Clarence joined the Canadian Army Provost Corps, and to his delight found cartoons formed a part of military life.

In his last year of a four year stint he was posted to Cyprus as part of Headquarters United Nations Peacekeeping Military Police duties. During his spare time he painted unit cartoons and completed his first large mural art work. Clarence began to understand, plus felt the effects art can have on isolated soldiers, and at once grasped the significance of why airmen painted aircraft in time of war.

In October 1966, he was a member of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Force with his major avocation being the research, collection and repainting of aircraft nose art. By 1977, he had discovered two large original collections of nose art existed in the United States and Canada. Today he is the only historian to research, collect, and repaint both the American 33 panel collection at Midland, Texas, and the Canadian 14 panel collection in the War Museum in Ottawa.

Clarence has been involved in three highly acclaimed books on the subject of nose art. He was a major contributor to the 1987 book “Vintage Aircraft Nose Art – Ready for Duty”. Then in 1991, he co-authored “Aircraft Nose Art WW 1 to Today”. His most recent book “RAF and RCAF Aircraft Nose Art” was published in 2002, and tells the complete Canadian RCAF history.

He has also written numerous articles for aviation magazines in England, United States and Canada. His presentations have taken him from the Alberta College of Art and Design, to the Canadian Aviation Museum in Ottawa, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Clarence has spent the past forty-two years attempting to save and record the history of the men who painted combat aircraft and is recognized as the leading authority in his area of expertise.

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