Alfred Schoelles, 82: Filled life with art and color
Alfred Schoelles had a colorful secret: he loved bright, vivid shades of yellow, blue, pink and green.
His secret came out in his art, which is filled with more colors than can be contained in a rainbow. His personality however, was a completely different story, friends and family said.
“He was a shy, unassuming man,” said Jeanie Doucher Schoelles, his wife of 39 years. “You never would have guessed he had all of this color in him, because he was so quiet, but he did. He could make the world sing through his art.”
When talking about an Al Schoelles piece of art, the color was the first thing Dr. Mahlon DeLong mentioned.
“The colors are just so bright and vivid,” said Dr. DeLong, a professor of Neurology at Emory University’s hospital, and a friend of the family. “I mean it was just so amazing to see these colors put together, because he was such a quiet man.”
Alfred John Schoelles, of Atlanta, died at his home Sunday, from complications brought on by Parkinson’s disease. He was 82.
A funeral service is planned for 1 p.m. Saturday at St. John's Lutheran Church, Atlanta. Burial will follow at Melwood Cemetery. A. S. Turner & Sons Funeral Home & Crematory is in charge.
Art was a major influence in Mr. Schoelles’ life, and the lives of his children, said daughter Ann Schoelles Gerondelis, of Decatur.
“When we were kids, there were no coloring books in the house,” Mrs. Gerondelis said. “There was only blank paper, because he wanted us to create. When we gave cards to each other, we made them and that was how he encouraged us to be artistic.”
The art Mr. Schoelles created was rarely sold, but more often given to family and friends, Mrs. Schoelles said.
“There are rooms in the house that are decorated around one of Al’s pieces,” she said. “And the children would tell him what they wanted, and he would create it for them.”
Mr. Schoelles was born near Buffalo, N.Y., and after high school he studied at Albright Art School, the Art Institute of Buffalo, Erie County Technical Institute, and the State University of New York at Buffalo.
After 18 months of military service in the Army, he began an advertising career in New York. He’d recently married his high school sweetheart, Iris Storey, and the couple eventually had three children, two boys and a girl. The family moved to Atlanta in 1972 so Mr. Schoelles could be the creative arm of a food brokerage business. But weeks after their arrival Mrs. Schoelles was killed in a car accident. Years later, he also buried his two sons, but by then he’d married Jeanie Doucher, and taken in her five children.
“We had a wonderful bended family with eight children,” Mrs. Schoelles said.
In 1983, Mr. Schoelles was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and two years later, he was forced to retire, but he kept going with his art, his wife and daughter said.
“He painted up until about three years ago,” Mrs. Schoelles said. “He painted until he couldn’t anymore, because art was his life.”
In addition to his daughter and wife, Mr. Schoelles is also survived by daughters, Jenny Doucher Thomas of Lilburn, Mary Lee Doucher Brown of Townsend, Dorothy Doucher Schoelles Haney of Pensacola, Fla.; son, William C. Doucher of Flowery Branch; several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
