Bernard Walter "Bud" Cullen Jr.
PFC in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : Co A
ASN#16126631 Casualty: Wounded
Born 1915 in IL, Died 1990
Artist
County of residence at enlistment: Cook County, IL
Other residence(s): Chicago, IL
United States Army, European Theatre of Operations
Occupation before the war: artists, sculptors, and teachers of art
College education before the war: Chicago Art Institute; American Academy of Art; Notre Dame 4 years
Bud Cullen was born on June 11, 1915 in Chicago, IL, the second of four children. His father had begun working for the City of Chicago in 1907, and in 1926 became Superintendent of the Water Distribution System for the City, a position he held for 30 years, until his death in 1956.
Bud was an artist who received an M.S. in fine arts from the University of Notre Dame in 1938. Two years later when he registered for the draft, he was living in Chicago and studying at the Art Institute. (He also studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago.)
He married Jane Elizabeth Healy on July 8, 1942, and enlisted a few months later, on September 22. Like many other artists, he was assigned to the 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion and saw service in Europe with the unit.
Two nights after the liberation of Paris, on August 27, 1944, Bud and his lieutenant were drinking in a bar in Beaumont-sur-Sarthe, France, as they had the previous three nights. His niece speculates that “possibly he and Lt. Landry were there to spread disinformation. At that point the Allies were poised to enter Paris and there were surely spies and collaborators in the area. Or perhaps they were just waiting for orders.” On finding out that both men were artists, one of the women they were drinking with mentioned that her neighbor was a well-known painter in hiding, Georges Rouault. She offered to introduce Bud to the painter, IF Rouault would agree. He did, and Bud described the meeting: “Lt. Landry and I met George [sic] Rouault the famous Painter — the Maître. He is an old man now . . . he received us very kindly and that was an event because he sees no one.”
On the day the war with Germany ended, May 8, 1945, Bud wrote in a letter to his wife: “May 8, 1945. The night that the war ended. Somewhere in Germany. . . . We walked up the road that runs along the hill. We had brought the Eliot along, the Four Quartets, and sat there reading and watching the broad valley and the river wind up around the city. The dead city. Somehow you could tell, but it didn’t look the broken roofless thing it was.”
Bud was discharged from the Army on October 21, 1945 with the rank of PFC, and got a job teaching at the Art Institute in Chicago, a position he held until 1956. He and Jane went on to have two children: Mary and Paul.
He had three channels for his art—teaching art, creating art, and working for many years for the City of Chicago.
In addition to his work at the Art Institute, he also served as an instructor at Notre Dame, Loyola University, and the La Grange Art League.
As an artist, his work was exhibited extensively in the Chicago area, including exhibits at several universities and galleries in greater Chicago, and at the Walter Art Gallery in Milwaukee. In 1954 several of his religious paintings were exhibited at the Palazzo Venezia in Rome as part of the Marian Year commemoration.
As an artist for the City of Chicago he created, among other works, poster art for exhibitions and promotions.
His wife, Jane, said of him that "he loved philosophy and music and poetry, especially Gerard Manley Hopkins. He was a true intellectual."
Bud died on April 17, 1990 in Evanston, IL and is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Evanston.
Sources:
1930 census
1940 census
1940 draft card
1942 marriage record
1942 article about his marriage in the Chicago Tribune (IL)
1942 enlistment record
1956 father's obituary in Chicago Daily Tribune (IL)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/213308179/?terms=bernard%20w.%20cullen&match=1
1990 VA death record
1990 obituary in Chicago Tribune (IL)
1990 Find a Grave record
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/192325730/bernard-walter-cullen
2024 article by his niece Janet Cullen Abowd in the Notre Dame magazine (discusses Cullen’s role in the Ghost Army as well as the Congressional Gold Medal)