Raymond Calcey
PVT in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : HQ & Service Co
ASN#33287006
Born 1899 in PA, Died 1996
Artist
County of enlistment: Pittsburgh, PA
United States Army, did not accompany the unit to Europe
Occupation before the war: commercial artists
Raymond Calcey was born in Pittsburgh, PA on January 7, 1899. Both of his parents were Austrian-born.
By 1930 he was living as a lodger in Pittsburgh City, and working as a newspaper artist. In his 1942 draft card, he's identified as an artist with the Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph; by that time he's living in McKees Rocks PA.
He enlisted in the Army on August 4, 1942. His wartime service was only 8 months domestically—he did not go overseas, and was honorably discharged on April 12, 1943 at Fort Meade, MD.
He went back to the Sun Telegraph after his military service, and was also a very successful artist in his own right.
In 1947 he exhibited an oil painting at the Pittsburgh Associated Artists' Exhibit entitled "In Conclave Assembled," which was a tribute to American servicemen in WW2. The painting shows the homes of his servicemen friends, all clustered together.
A destructive fire in 1950 wiped out his studio, and all his paintings, materials, frames, and art library, but "it did not wipe out his ambition, or his recent success." He won first prize in watercolor at the Johnstown Allied Artists' Show in 1950, at the Annual Allegheny Artists' Show in 1951, and at the Johnstown Allied Artist's Show in 1955, among other awards.
In 1950, two of his works were accepted by the 39th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture at the Newport RI Art Association. He also exhibited his work in Springfield MA (1949), New York City (1949), Baltimore MD (1951), Washington DC (1952).
Generally his work was in water color, and featured architecture and street scenes of Pittsburgh and other heartland cities.
He died on July 5, 1978 and is buried at St. Mary Cemetery, Kennedy Township, PA.
Sources:
1930 census
1942 draft card
1942 enlistment record
1947 article about his WW2 themed oil painting
https://www.newspapers.com/image/523998904/?terms=raymond%2Bcalcey
1950 Pennsylvania Veterans Compensation Application
1950 article about the fire at his studio
https://www.newspapers.com/image/524339880/?terms=raymond%2Bcalcey
1950 article re his watercolors
https://www.newspapers.com/image/524885559/?terms=raymond%2Bcalcey
1950 article about his Newport RI exhibit
https://www.newspapers.com/image/524991704/?terms=raymond%2Bcalcey
1951 article re his watercolors
https://www.newspapers.com/image/524665830/?terms=raymond%2Bcalcey
1955 article re his watercolors
https://www.newspapers.com/image/524211179/?terms=raymond%2Bcalcey
1978 death notice
https://www.newspapers.com/image/146935605/?terms=calcey
1978 Veterans Affairs death file
NOTE: There were LOTS of articles about his artwork (he worked for the newspaper, after all!) but I did not include all of the links.