Joseph Csatari, Silver Buffalo Award recipient, longtime art director for Boys’ Life and artist whose Scouting-related work spanned decades, has died. He was 96.
Csatari joined the Boy Scouts of America in 1955 as an artist in the advertising department of the Supply Division. He held numerous positions during his many years of service with the organization.
During a career that spanned more than 70 years, he created thousands of paintings, portraits and illustrations for publications such as Reader’s Digest, McCall’s, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life and Time. Working primarily in oil, watercolor, pastel and charcoal, his artwork has been recreated on collectible plates, figurines and medallions and is still displayed in museums across the country.
In 2005, he was awarded the Silver Buffalo Award, Scouting America’s highest honor for extraordinary service to youth.
Csatari’s son Jeff was features editor at Boys’ Life from 1986 to 1992.
“Dad is one of the happiest people I’ve ever met,” Jeff Csatari wrote in a 2016 Saturday Evening Post article about his father. “I mean, how could you whistle for 10 hours a day and not be happy? I’m sure it’s because … he’s doing exactly what he has loved to do since, as a child, he began doodling pictures of the Lone Ranger.”
The Rockwell connection
At an early age, Joseph Csatari developed an affinity for the work of Norman Rockwell, the painter and illustrator responsible for so many Saturday Evening Post and Boys’ Life covers.
It was a dream come true when he got a job as Rockwell’s art director for the Brown & Bigelow Scout calendar paintings. Csatari’s job was to help Rockwell develop themes for the paintings, create rough sketches for Rockwell to review and gather models for photo shoots in Rockwell’s studio.
Csatari was named art director of Boys’ Life in 1973, and in 1977, he succeeded Rockwell as the “official artist” of the Boy Scouts of America. He took over the job of creating the calendars from Rockwell and produced a Scout calendar every year until 1990.
“In a sense, there is a strange parallel between this young man and myself,” Rockwell wrote in a 1976 letter to the Boy Scouts of America. “Joe Csatari, until only recently, has been art director of Boys’ Life. In my own youth, I worked for Boy Scouts in the same capacity.”
Csatari produced more than 100 works of art for Scouting America throughout his career.
“We are all made in God’s image”
Csatari was born in 1929 in South River, New Jersey, where he lived his entire life. He was a graduate of South River High School, the Newark Academy of Art, and Pratt Institute, a private university in Brooklyn, New York, known for its programs in graphic design and fine arts.
He received numerous awards, including a Gold Medal for Editorial Art Directing from the Society of Illustrators of New York and the Distinguished American Award from the American Hungarian Foundation. (Csatari’s mother, Emma, was Hungarian.)
In his official obituary, Csatari is quoted as saying, “I love to paint people. We are all made in God’s image, and there’s something spiritual about painting people that I find so very rewarding.”
One of his most significant works of art was a tribute to the first responders and other heroes of 9/11 that showed “the heroic work of firefighters and police at Ground Zero in New York City as well as the efforts of Scouts across the nation to support them,” as featured in the January-February 2003 issue of Scouting magazine.
“We met several policemen who were Scouts or who had sons in Scouting,” Csatari said. “It’s amazing how influential Scouting is and how many people are involved in it.”
There are nine examples of Csatari’s work on display at the National Scouting Museum at Philmont Scout Ranch, including one original: “Green Bar Bill Hillcourt” from 2010.
Contributions in honor of Csatari may be made to South River High School, 11 Montgomery Street, South River, NJ 08882. Contributors are asked to specify the Joseph Csatari Memorial Scholarship Fund in the memo area of the check.
A selection of items from the National Scouting Museum, courtesy of the National Scouting Museum. The other photos and artwork on this page are from the Scouting America archives.
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